Georgian president (American trained lawyer) ran on the platform of reclaiming South Ossetia

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93585704

Saakashvili May Have Misjudged U.S. Support

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's leadership in the war with Russia has sparked both praise and scorn.

His supporters describe his actions as courageous while detractors say he used catastrophically bad judgment. The American-trained lawyer has enjoyed strong U.S. support but may have ignored Bush administration warnings when he tried to recapture the separatist enclave of South Ossetia.

Saakashvili, now 40, won the presidency of Georgia in 2004 on a platform that stressed regaining control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two regions that have been under the control of ethnic separatists since the early 1990s. The separatists had the support of Russia, which has provided them with aid and troops who were part of a peacekeeping mission.

Rice Provided Warnings

[Captain Hilts]

1. Put him down with JFK, Spritzer, etc. as Harvard grads that got success too quickly...

and were too confident in their own abilities.

[malaise]

2. Won what?

He came to power via a US backed coup which was 'prettified' (as was written in the Guardian) by some color-coded revolutionary fluff. Georgia is a one party state with virtually no press freedom.