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August 12, 2008
Israel Trains Quad Bikers?

Jewish Georgian Minister Temur Yakobshvili on Sunday praised the Israel Defense Forces for its role in training Georgian troops and said Israel should be proud of its military might, in an interview with Army Radio.
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Yakobashvili, Georgia’s minister of reintegration, added that this training provided Georgia with the know-how needed to defend itself against Russian forces in the clashes which erupted last last week in the separatist region of South Ossetia.

Yakobashvili said that a small group of Georgian soldiers had able to wipe out an entire Russian military division due to this training.
Jewish Georgian minister: Thanks to Israeli training, we’re fending off Russia , Aug 11, Haaretz

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The Georgian Army was in complete disarray last night after troops and tanks fled the town of Gori in panic and abandoned it to the Russians without firing a shot.
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The retreat from Gori, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin, was as humiliating as it was sudden and dramatic.
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Soldiers left by any means available. Dozens of troops clung to cars on the back of a transporter lorry, while five other soldiers fled on one quad bike.
Georgian army flees in disarray as Russians advance, Aug 12, London Times

Posted by b on August 12, 2008 at 10:24 UTC | Permalink
Comments

b,
I had just read the first article you linked to at another site and then some related discussion at Elaine’s before coming to MoA to find the same link – glad to find your post. A commenter at E’s writes:

Israel, not US, will attack Iran. US will try to keep the gulf open for arab allies, but not IRAN. Israel is trying to re-open a pipeline between northern Iraq-Jordan-Israel and also BTC pipeline. Israel knows that Russi will help Iran, so they asked Georgia to provoke a conflit with Russia to keep them busy.

I keep coming across links regarding US ship buildup in the Gulf (there’s one in Elaine’s comment section too)- yet IIFC you recently wrote that you believe there won’t be an attack on Iran, that US carriers were not gathering in the Gulf?
Any thoughts, b, about deeper machinations behind Georgia’s poking of the bear re an attack on Iran, or any of the above? I am really really worried that as G goofs away his last days in the white house, they are planning to go out with a bang. I can hear US media now: bad Russian bear smacks down little Georgia, Iran must be kept from doing same to Israel.

Posted by: Hamburger | Aug 12 2008 10:54 utc | 1

Considering how well the 2006 Lebanon and the current Georgia conflicts went for US interests – not to mention the disastrous Afghan and Iraqi wars -, they’d be fools to expect a good outcome of a war on Iran. Not that it’ll stop them, alas.

Posted by: Clueless | Aug 12 2008 13:20 utc | 2

Hamburger
The “reports” of a US ship buildup in the Persian Gulf are pure fantasy – there is currently not one single US aircraft carrier on station there, which, given that this is almost unprecedented in the last couple of decades must, in fact, mean that military action is imminent/snark off.
The closest US carrier group – the Lincoln – is in the Arabian Sea, having departed the Persian Gulf proper a good month ago; the carrier group left its US home port 5 months ago, and will almost certainly be heading back to the US no later than mid-September. The next nearest US carrier group is in the South China Sea – a good 4000 miles away, and will probably replace the Lincoln for a short period before it, too, has to return to the US ( in 12-16 weeks ).
There is no direct connection between events in Georgia and the long-standing US/Israel-Iran “hostility” – too much “intellectual” effort is being spent on trying to “backfit” everything from the pre-determined conclusion of a US or Israeli attack on Iran before the Bush administration leaves office.

Posted by: dan | Aug 12 2008 13:38 utc | 3

dan,
I doubt the Pentagon will allow carriers anywhere near the straits as they would become instant obstacles to transit of the strait should Iran’s patience wear thin, at least in the early part of any conflict. I can imagine one smallish nuke over a carrier group could block the strait for decades, though I think hijacking several tankers to be scuttled in the strait would do just as well with far less resources, thereby bottling up a carrier group or two in the gulf would just be icing on the cake.

Posted by: IntelVet | Aug 12 2008 14:47 utc | 4

could block the strait for decades, though I think hijacking several tankers to be scuttled in the strait would do just as well with far less resources
The straits is 20 miles wide – it can not be blocked by sinking a few tankers.
In case of war with Iran there would be no carriers in the Gulf. But the current carrier positions look more like rotation that positioning for war. This could change pretty fast though.
But in the end I do not see any connection between Saak’s splendid little war and any Iran action.

Posted by: b | Aug 12 2008 16:15 utc | 5

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