A defense analyst I spoke with, who advises American ground forces, said to rebuild the Georgian military along conventional lines might be the wrong approach. Instead he suggested a different force model, that of Hezbollah. What Hezbollah did so effectively, as was shown in the 2006 Lebanon war, was combine modern weaponry with a distributed infantry force that fought in guerrilla fashion. Fighting as distributed networks, Hezbollah rarely presented an inviting target for Israeli air and artillery attack, but their well trained tactical units were able to swarm at the point of attack of Israeli armored incursions and hit the Israelis hard with precision anti-tank weaponry.

Equipped with top-shelf anti-armor systems, such as the U.S. Dragon and Javelin and the Russian-built RPG-29 and AT-14 Kornet, such a force would perhaps better be able to exploit Georgia’s mountainous and urbanized terrain against channelized Russian armored columns than a conventionally organized combat brigade, as Hezbollah did in south Lebanon. The lessons from the initial Russian incursion into Grozny in 1994 are instructive as well. Fighting in small tactical teams organized around close range anti-armor weapons, the Chechens savaged Russian tank columns.  [DOD Buzz]

A lot of people don’t realize this but the US military was not allowed to train the Georgian military to fight a conventional war.  The training they received was in anti-terrorism to fight Chechen rebels operating in their territory as well as training for Georgian soldiers conducting operations in Iraq.  The Special Forces trainers were not authorized to train and equip the Georgian military for a conventional war in order to not provoke Russia.  We now see how well that policy worked.

Now that Russia has invaded Georgia the US military trainers have no reason to no train the Georgian military for a conventional conflict.  Considering how small their military is, the Hezbollah model may not be a bad idea but as the article mentions the thing the US military cannot equip the Georgians with is discipline and motivation.  That is something they have to do for themselves.

Exhibit A in Russia’s media offensive over last month’s hostilities in Georgia is an American passport its soldiers found in the war zone.

That passport belongs to Michael Lee White, a U.S. Army veteran from Texas, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. On Aug. 28 in Moscow, military spokesman Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said that White’s presence on the battlefield “together with Georgian commandos is a fact.” White, it turns out, is an itinerant 41-year-old English teacher in China, the Journal reported. On Tuesday, he answered the door at his faculty apartment at the Guangdong University of Business Studies and told a Journal reporter that he’s never been to Georgia.

In the world of covert action, there’s no sure way to identify undercover operatives, the paper noted. But a look at White’s recent past, as well as interviews with him and his family, turned up nothing to suggest he’s a U.S. agent, according to the report.

The passport the Russians showed off does appear to have been White’s. He told the Wall Street Journal that it looks to be the one he accidentally left in the seat pocket of a Moscow-New York flight in October 2005. [Stars & Stripes]

(via Blackfive)

Pretty tough woman to complete the news report after being wounded. The stories of the indiscipline of Russian troops are continuing to spread especially with the footage of Russian troops robbing a Georgian bank. The news media may ultimately be a better weapon for the Georgia government then their own military if these reports of the Russian military targeting civilians continues.

Not that the Russians care but their image has taken another hit internationally with their threats to nuke Poland now. Are we on the verge of Cold War II?

This cartoon makes it out to be that Georgia is a bully when in fact the Russians have been provoking the Georgians for years and especially in the last few months into some kind of response against the Russian sponsored separatists in South Ossetia. The Russians even recently issued the separatists Russian passports just to further legitimize any military action they would take against Georgia. As Ralph Peters points out, the very fact the Russians had an entire operational tank brigade waiting to roll into South Ossetia is evidence enough this was all stage managed by the Kremlin.

Why is controlling South Ossetia so important to the Russians? It is not to prevent genocide and other ridiculous claims the Russians have been claiming. If preventing genocide or supporting the independence of people who want separation from Georgia was the reason then Chechnya would be a free country today and Grozny would not have ever been bombed backed into the stone age.

You just have to look at a map to see the importance of South Ossetia:

As the Donovan points out South Ossetia may be small but it is extremely important geographically because it takes away a defensible mountainous border away from Georgia and the rest of the Caucasus states where the Russian military can mass thousands of troops on to threaten their neighbors with. It also sits near the central transportation hub of Georgia the city of Gori which the Russians could easily attack and sever the country in half if they wanted to at a moments notice. This would cut off the Georgian capitol of Tbilisi from its Black Sea ports which are the nation’s links to the outside world. This is all the tactical rationale for the attack. So what is the strategic rationale for the Russians?

There have been a lot of theories on the strategic rationale of why the Russians have been pushing to invade Georgia and the main reason often repeated is to control the gas pipeline that runs through Georgia. I never believed that because taking out that gas pipeline would have strongly angered Europe not that the Russians care but would have also greatly angered Turkey which borders Georgia and the gas pipeline runs through. Turkey is one country that the Russians would not want to tangle with. That is why the gas pipeline was never a target of the Russian attack.

I believe what Russia is trying to do is become the hegemon over the old Soviet republics in their neighborhood and is using Georgia as an example. The recent assault on Georgia is as much a statement to countries like the Ukraine as it is to the Georgians. Remember the Russians even tried to murder to the current Ukrainian president in order to gain hegemony over the country in the past. That back fired and now this may be another way to gain hegemony over Eastern European countries like the Ukraine. I think what this conflict shows and what the Russians wanted to highlight to leaders in the former Soviet republics is that when push comes to shove, they can’t count on the west to do anything for them.

I think the Russians have effectively stopped any other Eastern European country from wanting to join NATO after they have seen what the Russians did to Georgia. However I do think the Russians did not come out of this unscathed. Over at Registan which Robert Koehler was correct to recommend, they believe this conflict has exposed Russian President Medvedev as the puppet we all knew he was as Putin became the man on the ground in South Ossetia directing what was going on. Also the Russian military offensive was less then oppressive considering how long it took them to remove the small Georgian force from South Ossetia that was greatly out-gunned by the Russians as well as having little air defense to stop the Russian air attacks.

Also as the Herschel Smith points out these Russian forces look less then impressive with some having beards, long hair, different uniforms on, some wearing helmets some not, and even a soldier wearing purple socks and sneakers. So the Russian military even with time to execute a planned invasion is still not a very capable military but still large enough to push around its smaller neighbors.

So what should the US do? There isn’t much that can be done but I think criticism such as this from Doug Bandow are not helpful:

Today the U.S. and its European allies should be pleased that the country of Georgia is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as desired by President George W. Bush. If so, we might be preparing for war with Russia. [Korea Times]

Did ever occur to Doug Bandow that if Georgia was admitted into NATO that the Russians would never have attacked the country in the first place?

My main criticism of trying to get Georgia to be part of NATO is that the US should have never tried to get Georgia into NATO in the first place if Europe had no will to admit it. The same for other Eastern European countries that aspire to join NATO. By trying to get the country so publicly into NATO only served to provoke Putin to do something about it which he did before Georgia and other Eastern European countries could ever get admitted.

The current diplomatic initiatives have so far been successful in getting a ceasefire but the real test of the future of Georgia is whether or not Russia will be allowed to annex the break way regions of Georgia such as South Ossetia? Time will tell.

When I first saw this picture I immediately thought these guys look liked the US Army circa 2003 in Iraq.  However, these guys are not in the US Army they are in fact from Georgia, as in Georgia the country.  As other countries are trying to get out of Iraq as quickly as possible Georgia is actually increasing their force and taking on a more dangerous mission, intercepting arms smuggling along the Iraqi-Iranian border:

At a time when other countries are pulling troops out, Georgia has more than doubled its troop levels in Iraq, to 2,000 soldiers from 850, and agreed to send them from the safer Green Zone in Baghdad to this area along the Iranian border. That gives Georgia, a tiny Caucasus mountains nation, the second-largest troop presence among American allies in Iraq, behind Britain. [Andrew Kramer - NY Times] 

The Georgians are eager to build their military capability as well as build strong ties with the US in order to offset Russian hegemony over Georgia.  I have never worked with the Georgian military before so I can’t speak of their motivation or capability, but I do sincerely with them well and hope they do an excellent job securing the border. 

Coming Anarchy has an excellent post comparing the Georgian contribution in Iraq to Canada’s efforts in Afghanistan.  Good reading.  By the way, I always wondered what happened to all of our old DCUs we turned in after fielding our ACUs.  Good to see somebody is getting some use out of them.