Posted on 05/05/2005 8:18:02 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick
TBILISI (Reuters) - George W. Bush's visit next week to Georgia is being hailed in the ex-Soviet state as a U.S. blessing for revolutionary change in Russia's backyard and encouragement for Tbilisi's feisty stand against the Kremlin.
The two-day visit will pay homage to Georgia's 2003 "Rose Revolution" that defied Moscow by installing a pro-Western leadership and created the template for two other ex-Soviet states, Ukraine and Moldova, to move out of Russia's orbit.
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It will also underline Washington's desire to see democratic revolutions elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, analysts said, with authoritarian Russian ally Belarus — described by Bush's top diplomat as a "dictatorship" — heading the list.
"This visit is a very clear message … for the Russians that the Cold War is over," said Gocha Tskitishvili, a Georgian political analyst. "There is a new world order."
Georgia is at the heart of the strategic but turbulent Caucasus mountains region where Moscow is fighting Chechen separatists while just south of the Russian frontier a handful of "frozen conflicts" could reignite at any moment.
The United States is widely seen in Georgia as a protector from its northern neighbor and tens of thousands are expected to come on Tuesday when Bush speaks in Tbilisi's Liberty Square.
It was from there 18 months ago that thousands of people angered by a rigged election and brandishing red roses marched on parliament. Armed riot police melted away and unpopular President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned a day later.
But since then it has been a bumpy ride for new president Mikhail Saakashvili, a 37-year-old graduate of New York's Columbia University who says he wants to take his country of 5 million into the U.S.-led NATO alliance and the European Union.
Economic reforms have been painful and though Georgia won independence from Moscow in 1991, the Kremlin has clung to its levers of influence.
Two Russian military bases remain on Georgian soil and Tbilisi says Moscow is backing the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
thats sweet. How about a little democracy push in china.
Can't be little. The Commies aren't real push-overs. Promote dissent from within. Trust me, the Commies will create the fertile ground for it all by themselves.
They say the thing about the capitalists and the rope-sellers, well, freedom and liberty are the Commie 'Achilles' Heels'. Exploit them. Don't keep this weapon unused.
Amen to that!
I just don't understand that President Bush is so harsh on Cuba and North Korea but not on the other 3 communist countries: China, Laos, and Vietnam. We have full diplomatic relations with the latter three and are trading like crazy. We need to be consistent. If we're going to shun 2 communist nations, we need to shun the other 3.
What can Cuba and North Korea buy? What do they have to sell? All they want is aid.
That's all some people seem to care about these days. No matter how oppressive the regime is.
How many times Georgia has to made democratic? Another rose/orange revolution is needed?
That has been the way it has been since the rise of the USSR and then China becoming Communist. Communism demands world domination and we frequently backed bad guys as buffers to the Communist expansion.
Bush's proactive moves against Afghanistan and Iraq, and the new Bush Doctrine of you are either with us or you are with the terrorists, is the first break with that in 60 years.
Our relationships with China, Cuba, and North Korea are longtime policies going back to beginning of the Cold War. Since they haven't declared war on us, yet, the policies with them are different. North Korea is about to cross the line, forcing us to do something. That may flush out China's hand, too.
The permanent revolution theory of democracy, huh? I wonder if some followers of Trotsky are not involved.
Not permanent revolution, just permanent maintenance and being zealously alert. "Republic if you can keep it" - and so, per Ben Franklin, they better keep, guard and nurture their democracy, lest they need another revolution to go back to their square one. Failing that, they'll get stuck in "asiatic despotism" [using Karl Marx' words] just like more than a few of their neighbors.
The so called supporters of democracy could not care less what the regular Georgians think or want. This repeated "democratic" revolutions/oragne coups are just the tool of intervention.
American Republic was very fortunate not to have such dogooders around when she was being born. Well there were some from the Western Europe - the Hessians.
Well, it was the Georgians who did their Rose Revolution. The only foreign troops of any note in the country were those Russian troops the Georgians could not wait to see out. One should not sound like a sore loserman from "asiatic despotism", unless one wants to impersonate Algore.
Yeah sure. And so was the great democrat and friend of the West - Shevardnadze. He just got to old to be useful.
No commie turd could ever be trusted. Shevardnadze got his just deserts. Better late than never.
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