AMERICAN TROOPS HELP DEFEND GEORGIA

Strategy Page
Aug 13, 2008

August 13, 2008: As Russian troops invade, from bases in southern
Russia, 127 American military trainers remain in Georgia (the one in
the Caucasus). They weren’t the only foreign troops around, as at the
end of July, a thousand Ukrainian, Azeri, Armenian and U.S. troops
departed after holding joint training exercises with their Georgian
counterparts.

For the past three years, several hundred American military trainers
have run the GSSOP (Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations
Program), which has trained over 5,000 Georgian troops, many for
eventual service in Iraq. The trainers were American soldiers and
marines, who imparted their combat experience to the Georgians. This
was much appreciated, as Georgia aspires to membership in NATO. That
requires the Georgian being able to achieve NATO standards in training
and equipment. Georgia hoped to get into NATO by next year.

The U.S. trainers, usually a team of 70 Americans taking a 600 man
Georgian infantry battalion through a 17 week training program,
concentrate on combat subjects. Other training programs instructed
support and staff troops.

Georgia has been an active participant in peacekeeping operations since
1999, when they sent 200 troops to Kosovo, and kept troops there until
the present. In 2003, 70 peacekeepers were sent to Iraq. The following
year, 50 troops were sent to Afghanistan. In 2004, the Iraq contingent
was increased to 300. That was increased to 850 in 2005. Last year,
the Iraq force was increased to 2,000. The Georgians were highly
regarded by troops they worked with on these peacekeeping missions.

Georgia has a population of about 4.6 million, and an active duty
military of about 28,000 troops. Russia has a population of 142
million, and an active duty military of about a million personnel. The
U.S. has been helping Georgia train and equip an army reserve force of
about 100,000. Only about a fifth of that force has been organized so
far. Georgia was hoping to develop a sufficient qualitative advantage
to discourage the Russians.