The Pentagon Is At a Loss
The Department of Defense is trying to determine the reasons for the military defeat of Georgia.
The Pentagon is disappointed. During an election year, when only a few days remain until itÂ’s decided which candidate--Republican or Democrat--gets the presidential seat, the Department of Defense is forced to deal with a very sensitive issue.
The servicemen must find out why the Georgian army, which was trained by Americans, fled from Russian troops and left behind movable and immovable property. Georgians abandoned not only their own technology purchased using American credits, but also equipment that belonged to the Pentagon. That equipment will not be so easy for the Department of Defense to write off--Congress wonÂ’t allow it.
And thatÂ’s why a group of high-ranking American servicemen came to Georgia to review what happened. The questions these Department of Defense representatives want Tbilisi to answer are very specific: why werenÂ’t five Hummers, owned by the U.S. marines, sent home after the joint U.S.-Georgian exercises?
The representatives of Russian commanders had previously stated that Georgian soldiers drove around in these machines. However, according to the Department of Defense, the Hummers should have been at a port in Gori, along with two containers filled with staff property. They should have been waiting to be loaded onto a ship.
In total, 1000 American soldiers participated in the maneuvers in Georgia, just prior to its invasion of South Ossetia. Besides Hummers, the Americans brought 61 tons of ammunition, 79 tons of food, and 332 thousand bottles of water. According to some American experts, it could have been the success of these exercises that pushed Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to invade South Ossetia.
The Pentagon is disappointed. During an election year, when only a few days remain until itÂ’s decided which candidate--Republican or Democrat--gets the presidential seat, the Department of Defense is forced to deal with a very sensitive issue.
The servicemen must find out why the Georgian army, which was trained by Americans, fled from Russian troops and left behind movable and immovable property. Georgians abandoned not only their own technology purchased using American credits, but also equipment that belonged to the Pentagon. That equipment will not be so easy for the Department of Defense to write off--Congress wonÂ’t allow it.
And thatÂ’s why a group of high-ranking American servicemen came to Georgia to review what happened. The questions these Department of Defense representatives want Tbilisi to answer are very specific: why werenÂ’t five Hummers, owned by the U.S. marines, sent home after the joint U.S.-Georgian exercises?
The representatives of Russian commanders had previously stated that Georgian soldiers drove around in these machines. However, according to the Department of Defense, the Hummers should have been at a port in Gori, along with two containers filled with staff property. They should have been waiting to be loaded onto a ship.
In total, 1000 American soldiers participated in the maneuvers in Georgia, just prior to its invasion of South Ossetia. Besides Hummers, the Americans brought 61 tons of ammunition, 79 tons of food, and 332 thousand bottles of water. According to some American experts, it could have been the success of these exercises that pushed Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to invade South Ossetia.