From the Link:
Saakashvili prepares for war with Russia
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has called on military top brass to build “total defense” and accused Russia of planning to “overthrow Georgian democracy.”
Not only has Russia not given up its “plan to control Georgia, but they are working intensively on that,” Saakashvili said, speaking at a meeting with army top commanders and senior Defense Ministry’s officials. The president said his assessment was based on Russia’s “rhetoric and information war carried out on daily, minute-by-minute basis against Georgia.”
The Georgian leader expects an attack of “the enemy force… from the ethnically-cleansed territories,” referring to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, recognized by Russia as independent states in 2008.
Saakashvili set the task for his military to “burn each and every square meter of the Georgian land” beneath an enemy if it decides to invade the country. For this, the country should develop not only armed forces, but also a civil defense system, he said. Defense of the country is “a matter for each and every citizen” and “each village should be able to defend itself,” he stressed.
Although Tbilisi had to cut military budget for 2010 because of the economic crisis, “money will be invested in education, training and the increase of professionalism,” Saakashvili said.
Meanwhile, the Georgian army is gaining experience in Afghanistan. The participation in the military operation in that country is important from a geopolitical point of view and it is “a good military school,” Saakashvili said. “We need experience, as we need total defense,” he added.
“Fear sees danger everywhere,” an anonymous source in the Russian Defense Ministry told Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily. “No one is planning to do anything against Georgia, unless its government repeats the cruel behavior it resorted to two years ago. The fruits of that mistake proved to be bitter for the Georgian leadership, and it should have learned its lesson.”
The president’s speech does not contain any real threat, believes Georgian political scientist Gia Khukhashvili. When speaking before the military, the head of any state tries to raise the army’s morale, because such are “the rules of the game,” he told the daily. And thinking of a military revenge against Russia is “simply illogical,” he stressed.
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What we see in Saakashvili's ravings of Russian plots and threats are the age-old tactic of the leader of a country talking about an external threat, in order to solidify his rule and make him popular.
1984 warned about it.
Saakashvili talks of "ethnically-cleansed territories" whilst neglecting to mention it was he who fired Grad rockets on the towns and villages of ethnic groups who did not want to be ruled by him, while soldiers on his orders, carried out an assault.
A military revenge on Russia is "simply illogical" as the Georgian political scientist stated, but this is Saakashvili we are talking about.
Georgia expands military budget amid rising paranoia (Includes Video)
From the link:
Georgia expands military budget amid rising paranoia
Published 08 August, 2010, 10:21
While the Georgian people have set their minds on peace, their leadership is more concerned with war and has spent over thirty times more on its military budget than economic development.
President Mikhail Saakashvili is up in arms over his country’s defense capabilities.
“Each village should be able to defend itself. There should be small trained units in each village and each settlement, which have a certain number of arms, so that everyone can defend their own land,” Saakashvili said at the end of July.
Ever since the 2008 war in South Ossetia, the Georgian president appears to hold the belief that Russia is his country’s top enemy, claiming that Moscow still plans to attack Georgia and calling for full-scale militarization.
“If the enemy force decides to advance from the ethnically cleansed territories, each and every square meter of Georgian land should burn beneath them,” Saakashvili said. “That’s the task.”
The president's rhetoric has raised a number of concerns, not only in South Ossetia and the other former Georgian republic of Abkhazia, but even in Georgia itself.
Ucha Nanuashvili, Executive Director of the non-governmental organization The Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre, sees it as an attempt by the Georgian president to hold on to his authority, which has been severely shaken following the conflict of 2008.
“We expect that this campaign will be used to launch some kind of new incident, some new war with breakaway regions,” Nanuashvili suggested. “[Saakashvili] needs to keep his power, to survive, and war is the main way to do it. I think that’s the main reason.”
Writer and political activist Irakli Kakabadze also thinks that nationwide militarization should certainly not be Georgia’s top priority as it could have disastrous effects.
“This could lead to another war,” Kakabadze said. “This cannot be good for Georgia. [Saakashvili] needs to stop putting investment into militarization and start putting the money into education, civil society, and economic growth; it’s an everyday process.”
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Of course, this being the anniversary month of the 2008 War, tensions will be high, but sadly, Saakashvili's actions in the past and his behaviour now means we must not rule out the possibility of a new conflict.
Indeed, the fake reports on one of Georgia's main TV stations that war with Russia had broken out as reported here:
Georgia invaded, Saakashvili dead? False TV report causes panic
may have been, despite his later public distancing, an attempt by Saakashvili to test the reaction of the Georgian population in the event of a new war via the Georgian media. The Georgian people were not pleased upon learning that the new war reports were false. Indeed, they were terrified at the prospect of a new war, quite understadably so.
The reported warning by Ucha Nanuashvili, Executive Director of the non-governmental organization The Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre, that in order for Saakashvili to keep his power and survive is to wage war should serve as a warning to us all.
However, I simply can not envision that in the event of Saakashvili waging a second war, that there would be possibility of Russia allowing Saakashvili, a warmonger on their borders, to remain in power.
Indeed, with the ravings by Saakashvili that in the event of an invasion that "each and every square meter of Georgian land should burn beneath them", in other words, a scorched earth policy, I can not evision the average Georgian be best pleased having his home torched because of Saakashvili's orders, or pleased that once again, Russia had been brought into a conflict with Georgia.
Saakashvili, in waging a new war, may do so to create a national martyr myth status about himself against the mythical Russian beast.
The problem for Saakashvili if this is true, is that his wish to be a martyr may be granted, quite literally.
And it may be the Georgian population, the ones who will suffer, who once again will see him as having taken them into another devastating war, that Saakashvili will have to worry about.
[edit on 17-8-2010 by Regensturm]
