--- title: "Georgia: Why the Trump Administration Should Step In To Shore Up US Influence" type: "post" post_id: "8517" slug: "georgia-why-the-trump-administration-should-step-in-to-shore-up-us-influence" canonical: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2025/01/17/georgia-why-the-trump-administration-should-step-in-to-shore-up-us-influence/" markdown_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2025/01/17/georgia-why-the-trump-administration-should-step-in-to-shore-up-us-influence.md" json_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2025/01/17/georgia-why-the-trump-administration-should-step-in-to-shore-up-us-influence.json" txt_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2025/01/17/georgia-why-the-trump-administration-should-step-in-to-shore-up-us-influence.txt" published: "2025-01-17T15:31:19+00:00" modified: "2025-01-17T15:31:19+00:00" author: "penny2" categories: - "Uncategorized" tags: - "Georgia" - "Russia" - "state sponsored terrorism" - "US" site_name: "PFYT2" publisher: "" language: "en-US" generator: "easyPress Markdown" generator_version: "1.0.6" --- ###### Excerpts **From [Just Security](https://www.justsecurity.org/106509/georgia-protests-trump-influence/)** > The Trump administration comes into office as the United States and its Western allies are on the verge of losing Georgia, and the loss to U.S. interests would be considerable**. Once one of America’s most reliable non-NATO partners** on the European continent, **providing valuable personnel to U.S.-led missions, Georgia also is part of an important strategic land corridor** for Central Asian resources and trade — **the only non-Russian, non-Iranian rail and pipelines to the West run through Georgia.** **Providing valuable personnel to US led missions**? **Mercenaries or Soldiers of Fortune would definitely be valuable personnel.** [***The Georgian roots of Isis commander Omar al-Shishani***](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28217590) > He was born T**arkhan Batirashvili** and grew up in Georgia’s picturesque **Pankisi Gorge.** He lived in the village of Birkiani, where his father, a Christian, still lives in a small, simply-furnished house. > > **The jihad in Syria and Iraq was not Shishani’s first experience with combat. He previously served with the Georgian army during the war with Russia in 2008.** **Back to Just Security** > U.S. Marines and [Georgian troops trained and deployed together](https://www.army.mil/article/146400/new_georgian_army_battalion_u_s_marine_partners_take_over_in_afghanistan_continue_unique_mission) in Afghanistan to defend Bagram airbase. **In August 2017, then-President Donald Trump’s [vice president, Mike Pence, visited Tbilisi](https://www.npr.org/2017/08/02/540948943/pence-talks-up-nato-on-visit-to-russias-front-yard), and, several months later, the Trump administration announced it would provide Georgia with long sought-after [Javelin antitank missiles](https://eurasianet.org/us-approves-long-sought-sale-of-anti-tank-missiles-to-georgia), overturning the Obama-era policy of not giving Georgia lethal weapons**. **And in 2018, Georgia [launched a $53 million in-country initiative with the U.S. Army](https://georgiaembassyusa.org/2018/06/08/georgia-defense-readiness-program-kicks-off-in-tbilisi/), called the Georgia Defense Readiness Program, to train and equip the Georgian military.** **Fear of Moscow** ------------------ > **Not surprisingly, Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin found these moves provocative.** It already controlled two northern provinces of Georgia after its 2008 invasion. In 2019, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister [Grigoriy Karasin warned](https://civil.ge/archives/277976) Tbilisi of consequences for its deepening cooperation with the United States and NATO: “\[I\]f such activities continue to develop, this will lead to problems,” Karasin warned. “We all know how the problems in Ukraine started. **Of course Moscow would find these moves provocative because they are intended to be provocative.** > **Georgian Dream also allowed three high-profile U.S. initiatives to lapse without renewal or replacement:** the [Millennium Challenge program](https://www.mcc.gov/resources/doc/star-report-georgia-ii/) in 2019 and the U.S. Army’s [Georgian Defense Readiness Program](https://www.7atc.army.mil/GDRPT/) and the U.S. Marines’ joint training and deployment program in 2021. > In conspiratorial tones, **Georgian Dream officials falsely (Falsely?) and repeatedly claimed there was a “[deep-state global war party](https://civil.ge/archives/650213)” in Washington trying to blackmail Georgia into opening a second front against Russia.** They accused representatives of the **U.S. Agency for International Developmen**t of **training political activists to** **overthrow the Georgian Dream government**. The Russian government seconded the claim, calling it [a U.S. plan to foment a “color revolution”](https://civil.ge/archives/621714) that Russia was ready to help prevent. **USAID training political activists to overthrow the government- Sounds about right.** > ***Georgia’s rightful president, Zourabichvili,*** is coming to Washington for President-elect Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20. She has been an outspoken critic of Georgia’s October parliamentary elections and an organizer among the opposition forces against the government ***Zourabichvili* mentioned in the post directly below;** > [Huge anti-Russian protests in Tbilisi echo Ukraine’s Maidan- Stated Unironically](https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2024/12/03/huge-anti-russian-protests-in-tbilisi-echo-ukraines-maidan-stated-unironically/) **A western backed overthrow has been in the works, with multiple attempts made, for some time** > [“A coup à la Euromaidan is being prepared in Georgia” – Security Service](https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2023/09/18/a-coup-a-la-euromaidan-is-being-prepared-in-georgia-security-service/)