U.S. Military Role In Georgia Tricky | Newsweek Periscope

WORLD AFFAIRS
The Realist Resurgence
Christopher Dickey 10/11/2008 12:00:00 AM
FACTCHECK.ORG
"Dishonorable"
Joe Miller 10/6/2008 12:00:00 AM
It accuses him of saying "our troops in Afghanistan" are just bombing villages and killing civilians. What Obama said, in context, was a criticism of U.S. military strategy, and not of American troops.
INTERNATIONAL
Why McCain Loves Misha
Owen Matthews 9/20/2008 12:00:00 AM
Mikheil Saakashvili, his eyes bloodshot from sleeplessness and his face caked with television makeup, summoned his closest advisers into his office above Tbilisi's Old City. It was 2 a.m. on Aug. 12, and columns of Russian tanks were rolling down the highway toward the Georgian capital. "I am never going to flee," the president told his team. "I will not live my life regretting that I abandoned my own country at war." Then he sent them home to change out of their suits and ties so they could fight the invaders. Swigging a can of Red Bull, Saakashvili grabbed a phone and called the trusted friend and mentor he had turned to every night since Aug. 8, when the war began: John McCain. A source close to the Republican standard-bearer, asking not to be named discussing a private conversation, says McCain voiced support for diplomatic and political pressure against Moscow. "Hang in there," the senator said, according to a Saakashvili aide on condition of anonymity. "We are not going to let this happen … We are doing everything we can to stop this aggression."
INTERNATIONAL
Pakistan’s Dangerous Double Game
Ron Moreau 9/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
Mullah Nasrullah, a Taliban commander, made what has become a routine trek from his guerrilla base in Afghanistan across the jagged peaks into Pakistan last month. His destination: the headquarters of his patron and supplier, the powerful insurgent leader Sirajuddin Haqqani. A genial young man in his late 20s or early 30s with a bushy black beard, Haqqani leads the bloody Taliban insurgency in eastern Afghanistan, where American casualties are highest. Interviewed by NEWSWEEK on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Nasrullah refused to specify the reason for his meeting with Haqqani, though it's likely he was looking for more suicide bombers, explosive vests, weapons and money to use against U.S. and NATO forces.
WORLD AFFAIRS
Georgian Army, American Made
John Barry 9/6/2008 12:00:00 AM
In the aftermath of Russia's swift victory over the Georgian Army, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has suggested that the United States secretly provoked the conflict—perhaps even prepared Georgia's forces for it. Lt. Col. Robert Hamilton, who ran the U.S. military training program in Georgia until six weeks ago, finds the charge ironic. "At no time did the U.S. attempt to train or equip the Georgian armed forces for a conflict with Russia," he says. "In fact, the U.S. deliberately avoided training capabilities that were seen as too provocative" to Russia. So the United States never trained the Georgians how to use tanks, artillery or attack helicopters—precisely because those are the skills of all-out conventional warfare. Now the United States—with or without its European allies—is being pushed to build a Georgian Army that could face the Russians, next time.
WORLD AFFAIRS
A New Model Army
Owen Matthews 8/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
The Russian army on the March is a terrifying sight—part Stalingrad, part Mad Max. In the Georgian town of Gori late last month, Russia's advance guard rode freshly painted tanks and armored personnel carriers in neat formation, crushing barriers and rolling over the Georgian Army with ease. "Behind the vanguard trailed Chechen and Ossetian irregulars in beards, skullcaps and running shoes, riding dirty Ladas and Soviet ambulances. Russian officials shrugged off reports of looting, calling it a "tradition of war." Some things, in other words, haven't changed. But for all that there was no denying that the Russians won with ease—and that in itself shows that something is going right with Russia's military machine.