US Recruits Students From Georgia’s ‘Occupied Territories,’ Israel Supplies Missiles

The U.S.-NATO-EU triumvirate, after subduing the European continent in a manner Charlemagne, Napoleon and Hitler could only dream of, can’t refrain from taunting Russia in every country bordering it except Belarus (for the moment), China and North Korea.

Norway, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are now NATO and EU members; Finland, Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan on the road to both, the first three being half of NATO’s Enhanced Opportunities Partners; Kazakhstan and Mongolia are both NATO partners (in the Partnership for Peace and Partners Across the Globe, respectively) and host regular U.S.-led multinational military exercises with Washington’s NATO allies: Exercise Steppe Eagle and Exercise Khaan Quest (pronounced as in conquest).

The U.S., NATO and the EU also pledge to help “liberate” what are called occupied territories claimed by their partners: The Donetsk and Lugansk republics in the Donbass and Crimea in relation to Ukraine, Transdniester in relation to Moldova, Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan and Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Georgia. Enough powder kegs to detonate any number of armed conflicts. Or one gigantic conflagration.

The website of the U.S. Embassy in Georgia reports that Rian Harris, Deputy Chief of Mission, joined Georgian State Minister Tea Akhvlediani in – the following is a quote from the embassy press release – “reaffirming that Georgia’s western aspirations is an inclusive project that benefits all Georgian people, including those from occupied regions….” The occupied regions being, of course Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia fought a war with Russia thirteen years ago over the second. The State Department clearly would support its right to do so again if its words about the status of occupied regions, above, are any indication.

In another sentence from the release, one which says so much in so few words, Hill and Akhvlediani “welcomed students from Georgia’s occupied territories to the Tbilisi NATO-EU Information Center.”

Hill is quoted saying: “Beyond our support for NATO-EU Centers [one of eleven such centers the American embassy “supports” in the country], the U.S. Embassy provides assistance to complementary projects that increase transparency, counter malign influence, promote resilience, and strengthen U.S.-Georgian defense and security ties.”

That is, the U.S. uses NATO-EU Centers to recruit citizens from two states that declared themselves independent nations in 2008, and are recognized as such by several countries, including Russia which has military bases in both. To use them as Janissaries to help liberate occupied territories. And to counter malign influence – to translate from State Departmentese, to confront Russia – and to integrate the Georgian armed forces into the Pentagon’s and NATO’s global army. Thanks in no small part to the EU.

At the same time the Georgian Defense Ministry disclosed that the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Center is currently conducting a training course with U.S., Georgian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian troops. The five-day training is conducted by Lithuanian officers together with Georgian instructors No doubt to prepare them to liberate Georgia’s and Ukraine’s “occupied territories.” And maybe to assist the Lithuanian military to liberate Kaliningrad and Belarus which their nation borders. They are being observed by Georgian Commander of Exercises and Military Education, Colonel Zurab Khvichia, the Commander of the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Assessment Center, Lieutenant Colonel David Gagua, and the defense attachés of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine.

The Defense Ministry also reports that Georgian special forces personnel are participating in U.S. Special Operations Command in Europe-led Trojan Footprint 21 exercise for the first time. Georgian troops are training in Romania and at home with U.S. military personnel. Georgian and American troops “performed rapid response tasks” and “conducted a raid and neutralized the opposing force.” The Georgian troops participating in those drills “received a positive assessment” from their U.S. instructors.

The special operations forces exercise, with troops from the U.S., Britain, Bulgaria, Germany, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Spain and Ukraine (again, note), began on May 3 and ended today.

No doubt to assist it in liberating its occupied territories (get ready for irony) and to “neutralize an opposing force,” Georgia has announced it is purchasing mobile air defense missile systems from Rafael, the Israeli arms manufacturer, according to Georgian Defense Minister Juansher Burchuladze. They will be put in service before the end of the year.

He also told his country’s parliament that the Georgian army will purchase more U.S.-made FGM-148 Javelin portable anti-tank missile launchers of the sort they’ve obtained in the past few years. The same weapons the Pentagon has provided to the armed forces of Ukraine – to liberate its occupied territories, no doubt.

And he said that Georgia will cooperate with Israel in the production of the U.S.-designed M4 rifle, currently used by the U.S., Israeli and Georgian armed forces, in a joint production site in Georgia, and that his nation is going to begin the joint manufacturing of drones with Poland and South Africa.

So many territories to be liberated, never enough weapons.

Rick Rozoff is a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He has been involved in anti-war and anti-interventionist work in various capacities for forty years. He lives in Chicago, Illinois. He is the manager of Stop NATO. This originally appeared at Anti-Bellum.