U.S. troops start training exercise in Georgia (VAZIANI, Georgia)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

U.S. troops start training exercise in Georgia
26 minutes ago

VAZIANI, Georgia (Reuters) - One thousand U.S. troops began a military training exercise in Georgia on Tuesday against a backdrop of growing friction between Georgia and neighboring Russia.

Officials said the exercise, called "Immediate Response 2008," had been planned for months and was not linked to a stand-off between Moscow and Tbilisi over two Russian-backed separatists regions of Georgia.

The United States is an ally of Georgia and has irritated Russia by backing Tbilisi's bid to join the NATO military alliance.

"The main purpose of these exercises is to increase the cooperation and partnership between U.S. and Georgian forces," Brigadier General William B. Garrett, commander of the U.S. military's Southern European Task Force, told reporters.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080715/ts_nm/georgia_usa_exercises_dc

[freedomnorth]

1. Well, this makes Turkmenistan only country bordering Iran that has no US forces on their soil. nt.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Just gotta protect that oil

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (sometimes abbreviated as BTC pipeline) is a crude oil pipeline that covers 1,768 kilometres (1,099 mi) from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. It connects Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan; Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia; and Ceyhan, a port on the south-eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey, hence its name. It is the second longest oil pipeline in the world after the Druzhba pipeline. The first oil that was pumped from the Baku end of the pipeline on May 10, 2005 reached Ceyhan on May 28, 2006.<1>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan_pipeline

[bdamomma]

3. exactly.

[ohio2007]

4. Does it have anything to do with Russias recent saber rattling in the former Soviet republic?

Russia admits to Georgian territory fly over

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/11/2300687.htm

Will tensions between Georgia and Russia boil over?

snip

The tension between Russia and Georgia over Abkhazia, the Georgian separatist republic, has been growing steadily since last year -- and many Georgians fear that tensions will boil over into full-scale armed conflict soon.
snip

http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/ov/archive/2008/06/02/will-tensions-between-georgia-and-russia-boil-over.aspx

[Earth_First]

5. Of course there's always the Missle Defense System angle...

you've gotta have your allies on the same page when Russia gets hot-tempered on the Missle Defense System.