Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Wall Street Journal
August 12, 2008
Pg. 9
Top Diplomats Seen More Focused On Mideast Affairs
By Jay Solomon and Mary Jacoby
WASHINGTON -- As Russian troops expand their military presence across Georgia, criticism is mounting that the Bush administration didn't do enough to manage its strategic relationship with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili -- and keep him out of trouble.
U.S. officials have stressed in recent days that the White House and State Department repeatedly warned Mr. Saakashvili and his government against responding to Russian military provocations in ways that could spark a broader conflict.
The State Department, in particular, said its special envoy to Georgia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, made trips to Tbilisi in recent months to convey the message that Washington could do little for Mr. Saakashvili if a war with Moscow broke out.
"We've been quite clear....Don't take the bait and don't respond," said a senior U.S. official working on Georgia.
A Georgian official confirmed that the U.S. had warned Tbilisi not to respond to Russian provocations. But the official said Moscow's military buildup in South Ossetia grew so large that the Georgian government eventually had to respond. "We were restrained for a long time," the official said.
Despite the U.S. warnings, many officials in the U.S. government who have worked on the Russia relationship in recent years said, President Bush lionized Mr. Saakashvili as a model for democracy in the region to a point that the Georgian leader may have held unrealistic expectations about the amount of support he might receive from the U.S. and the West.
These officials also point to a lack of clarity governing the U.S.-Georgia military relationship, which was increasingly close but not yet a formal alliance. About 130 American military trainers have been stationed in Georgia to train local troops, and Tbilisi deployed 2,000 soldiers in Iraq before this month's fighting with Russia forced them home. But the U.S. wasn't formally committed to protecting Georgia against outside aggression.
Finally, these officials said, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seemed so preoccupied with Iraq, Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict that she didn't have time to fashion an effective response to Russia's muscle-flexing on its borders.
They note that Ms. Rice, herself a Russia scholar, was largely wrapped up with Middle East affairs and that, as a result, policy involving the former Soviet states was largely delegated to more junior officials.
This occurred despite the importance Washington placed on democracy in the former Soviet states, and despite growing signs in recent months that an increasingly confident and oil-rich Moscow wasn't going to allow pro-Western governments to flourish on its doorstep.
"The vast majority of the time, this administration is not focused on Georgia or Russia," said Sarah Mendelson, a senior follow the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
The U.S. official working on Georgia denied that the administration wasn't focused on managing its relationship with the country. The official added that Washington couldn't ask Mr. Saakashvili not to protect his troops from attacks by South Ossetian insurgents and Russian forces.
In a Bush administration that espoused democracy-promotion as among its principal tenets, Mr. Saakashivili became one of Washington's closest allies after the Georgetown University-educated lawyer came to power in the 2003 "Rose Revolution."
Georgia was among a handful of former Soviet states that backed the U.S. invasion of Iraq that year, and contributed troops. And Mr. Saakashvili was a regular on the Washington diplomatic circuit, attending black-tie events and contributing to U.S. foreign-policy journals.
President Bush responded by making a state visit to Tbilisi in 2005, where he was greeted by 150,000 Georgians. And the American president became a supporter of Georgian membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, although its membership hasn't advanced.
Still, some analysts say the U.S. didn't seem to contemplate the darker sides of Mr. Saakashvili's leadership. His government has been charged by the Georgian opposition with corruption and crackdowns on competing political parties. And economists have warned that Tbilisi was spending too much on defense.
"The Bush administration didn't in any way encourage Saakashvili's move against the Russians, but it didn't do enough to rein him in," said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former director of European affairs at the National Security Council. "It encouraged the creation of a Georgian president who was too big for his britches."
August 12, 2008
Pg. 9
Top Diplomats Seen More Focused On Mideast Affairs
By Jay Solomon and Mary Jacoby
WASHINGTON -- As Russian troops expand their military presence across Georgia, criticism is mounting that the Bush administration didn't do enough to manage its strategic relationship with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili -- and keep him out of trouble.
U.S. officials have stressed in recent days that the White House and State Department repeatedly warned Mr. Saakashvili and his government against responding to Russian military provocations in ways that could spark a broader conflict.
The State Department, in particular, said its special envoy to Georgia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, made trips to Tbilisi in recent months to convey the message that Washington could do little for Mr. Saakashvili if a war with Moscow broke out.
"We've been quite clear....Don't take the bait and don't respond," said a senior U.S. official working on Georgia.
A Georgian official confirmed that the U.S. had warned Tbilisi not to respond to Russian provocations. But the official said Moscow's military buildup in South Ossetia grew so large that the Georgian government eventually had to respond. "We were restrained for a long time," the official said.
Despite the U.S. warnings, many officials in the U.S. government who have worked on the Russia relationship in recent years said, President Bush lionized Mr. Saakashvili as a model for democracy in the region to a point that the Georgian leader may have held unrealistic expectations about the amount of support he might receive from the U.S. and the West.
These officials also point to a lack of clarity governing the U.S.-Georgia military relationship, which was increasingly close but not yet a formal alliance. About 130 American military trainers have been stationed in Georgia to train local troops, and Tbilisi deployed 2,000 soldiers in Iraq before this month's fighting with Russia forced them home. But the U.S. wasn't formally committed to protecting Georgia against outside aggression.
Finally, these officials said, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seemed so preoccupied with Iraq, Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict that she didn't have time to fashion an effective response to Russia's muscle-flexing on its borders.
They note that Ms. Rice, herself a Russia scholar, was largely wrapped up with Middle East affairs and that, as a result, policy involving the former Soviet states was largely delegated to more junior officials.
This occurred despite the importance Washington placed on democracy in the former Soviet states, and despite growing signs in recent months that an increasingly confident and oil-rich Moscow wasn't going to allow pro-Western governments to flourish on its doorstep.
"The vast majority of the time, this administration is not focused on Georgia or Russia," said Sarah Mendelson, a senior follow the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
The U.S. official working on Georgia denied that the administration wasn't focused on managing its relationship with the country. The official added that Washington couldn't ask Mr. Saakashvili not to protect his troops from attacks by South Ossetian insurgents and Russian forces.
In a Bush administration that espoused democracy-promotion as among its principal tenets, Mr. Saakashivili became one of Washington's closest allies after the Georgetown University-educated lawyer came to power in the 2003 "Rose Revolution."
Georgia was among a handful of former Soviet states that backed the U.S. invasion of Iraq that year, and contributed troops. And Mr. Saakashvili was a regular on the Washington diplomatic circuit, attending black-tie events and contributing to U.S. foreign-policy journals.
President Bush responded by making a state visit to Tbilisi in 2005, where he was greeted by 150,000 Georgians. And the American president became a supporter of Georgian membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, although its membership hasn't advanced.
Still, some analysts say the U.S. didn't seem to contemplate the darker sides of Mr. Saakashvili's leadership. His government has been charged by the Georgian opposition with corruption and crackdowns on competing political parties. And economists have warned that Tbilisi was spending too much on defense.
"The Bush administration didn't in any way encourage Saakashvili's move against the Russians, but it didn't do enough to rein him in," said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former director of European affairs at the National Security Council. "It encouraged the creation of a Georgian president who was too big for his britches."