Georgia's South Ossetia Conflict - Military Commentary

[Rank amateur]

I can't understand why the Georgians would try to fight Russia using tanks? The Georgian Army should be a Army of 6 man cells, with the best shoulder fired weapons money can buy.ain some units to specialize in hit and run tactics, and supply line disruption?

I'm glad that someone who knows what they're talking about raised this issue, because sometimes I look stupid when I ask obvious questions.


I wondered if:

A) we didn't want to sell the Georgians sophisticated AT weapons or

B) we didn't want to teach these type of tactics because now that Hezbollah uses them that makes them "terrorist tactics."


After reading here though, the previously mentioned, we only trained the Georgians to get rid of terrorists because that's all we cared about, makes the most sense.

[kaur]

The Georgia Train and Equip Program (GTEP) was an American-sponsored 18-month, $64-million plan designed to increase the capabilities of the Georgian armed forces. On February 27, 2002 it began to be reported in the US media that the U.S. would send approximately two hundred United States Army Special Forces soldiers to Georgia to train Georgian troops.[citation needed] This program implemented President Bush's decision to respond to the Government of Georgia's request for assistance to enhance its counter-terrorism capabilities and addressed the situation in the Pankisi Gorge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia..._Equip_Program

Mission completed. Georgians got rid of Chechens and US got allies in COIN operation in Iraq.

This is not only Hezbollah tactics. This is partly Chechen tactics, Iraqi insurgents tactics, Mujahideen tactics etc. ... but this is not politically correct tactics, because Goliath got hit to the groin. If I remember correctly van Creveld wrote in the beginning of nineties in "Transformation of war" that big states teach only their type of tactics. First, they can sale hardware and know-how. Second, this will not work against them.

[Rank amateur]

but this is not politically correct tactics,

That's what I was getting at. Were we more worried about avoiding scandalous headlines back home - "US teaches Georgians terror tactics", than what the Georgians would need to do if they ever faced a Russian tank invasion?

Though, as others have mentioned, these teams have very high casualty rates. Maybe the Georgians weren't interested in being martyrs. A decision that I can't really disagree with.

As always, could be both, plus other factors too.