Both former U.S. military commanders interviewed by Task & Purpose said the decision seemed counterintuitive to broader Western goals to limit Russian influence in the region. Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former Commander of the U.S. Army Europe said the decision reflects the lack of a clear policy in the Black Sea region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe decision to postpone exercises, that\u2019s a policy statement, but it\u2019s not connected to any well founded thought out strategy for the region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Howard noted Georgia\u2019s specific importance \u201cas a cork in the bottle for the caucuses\u201d to prevent the post-Soviet and eastern European nations from sliding towards Russia and away from the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn other words, Georgia goes, the Russians cut off Azerbaijan, they cut off the Caspian, they cut off the \u2018stans and they control the geopolitical destiny of the region and they control China,\u201d Howard said. \u201cThe east, west, north, south transportation corridors go through Georgia. The geopolitical importance of Georgia is not lost here and we need to keep that in mind when we\u2019re making our policy decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hodges also said that such a politically driven decision could undermine U.S.-Georgia military cooperation going forward and give Russia more ammo to push anti-American narratives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt will reinforce the notion that some countries have that the U.S. is maybe not as reliable as we used to be,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you cancel an exercise, because we\u2019re unhappy with the Georgia Dream government, that misses the whole point of why we do the exercise. It\u2019s kind of like cutting your nose off to spite your face.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Howard said that pro-Russian factions in Georgia are likely applauding the decision. Those in the military who have trained with American troops and are pro-U.S., will not be engaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo you want to show these people at the end of the day you\u2019re gonna be there to help them or are you going to roll up the flag and say, \u2018We\u2019re heading out guys. See you later,\u2019\u201d Howard said. \u201cThat\u2019s how it may appear.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Both former U.S. military commanders interviewed by Task & Purpose said the decision seemed counterintuitive to broader Western goals to limit Russian influence in the region. Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former Commander of the U.S. Army Europe said the decision reflects the lack of a clear policy in the Black Sea region. \u201cThe decision…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-georgia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}