Georgia on Our Minds

Although it did not have the same level of consequences of the media failure in the runup to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the errors of fact and emphasis and punditry in this year's Russia-Georgia war were legion, and now embarrassing.  Somehow the outright lies from the administration over Iraq did not ruin its credibility in another international crisis, at least in the minds of many in the media. Here's a new AP piece of further evidence shooting down the former collective wisdom. 

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[Truth for Ossetia]

Note that former ambassador Erosi Kitsmarishvili says certain Georgian government officials ~told~ him they’d received a green light from U.S. officials, but he himself is skeptical of that claim, and says all U.S. government officials he's spoken with have denied giving any encouragement. He was not present at the meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

More interesting is the Georgian reaction to Kitsmarishvili himself. The chairman of the commission where he testified, Paata Davitaia, accused him of "professional negligence," and he's being denounced by many Georgian politicians. These denunciations are not coming only from Saakashvili's party; the commission itself is advertised as bipartisan.

More Kitsmarishvili comment on planning for the war: "This was known in Russia and certain forces in Russia were pushing Saakashvili towards this action."

More on this at our daily South Ossetia News Roundup at truthforossetia.org.