Georgia Coup

[reprehensor]

Shevy's big mistake: Crossing Uncle Sam

By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Contributing Foreign Editor
The latest recipient of Washington's "regime change" was not some miscreant Muslim state but the the mainly Christian mountain nation of Georgia.

Eduard Shevardnadze, the 75-year-old strongman who has ruled post-Soviet Georgia's 5.1 million citizens since 1991, was overthrown by a bloodless coup that appears to have been organized and financed by the Bush administration.

Shevardnadze's sin, in Washington's eyes, was being too chummy with Moscow and obstructing a major U.S. oil pipeline, due to open in 2005, from Central Asia, via Georgia, to Turkey. Georgia occupies the heart of the wild, unruly, and strategic Caucasus region, which I call the Mideast North.

Original:
http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/margolis_nov30.html

[weldon_berger]

1. Margolis is usally on the mark.

And he answers his email too, a rare and admirable quality in a journalist.

I read another article this morning, can't find it now, addressing the balancing act twixt Russian and US interests faced by the new leadership, not to mention the etnic minefield they'll have to negotiate. Hop aboard the Blunder Bus ...