ANALYSIS: Westerners resist perception of Georgian aggression

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By Dmitri K. Simes SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin may be forgiven for claiming in her ABC interview that Russia's invasion of Georgia was "unprovoked." The Republican vice-presidential nominee clearly had no personal views on the issue and was just repeating what she heard from Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign staff.

What is less explicable is that the perception that Russia attacked Georgia first remains common in the U.S. political mainstream, even as abundant evidence demonstrates the contrary.

The U.S. State Department and intelligence agencies, independent American and European media, and even quite a few informed Georgian sources make absolutely clear that as incredible as it may sound, tiny Georgia attacked huge Russia, not vice versa.

Reasonable people may debate to what extent Russia's growing presence in Abkhazia and South Ossetia or South Ossetian actions against Georgian troops provoked the Georgian offensive.

But by now, there is no doubt that Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili ordered the assault on the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 just hours after announcing a unilateral cease-fire and that Georgian forces used heavy artillery, tanks, and rockets against a battalion of Russian troops protecting the city.

The Russian battalion was legally a part of a peacekeeping brigade based in South Ossetia under an agreement signed by Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 1992. The Russian force served together in that brigade with a Georgian battalion, at least until the Georgian battalion turned its weapons against the Russians.

It is understandable why many in the West have difficulty accepting these facts. Russia's reputation is a big part of the problem. Russia's "sovereign democracy" is more sovereign than democratic, its corruption is pervasive, and its legal system is too often open to official manipulation and even outright sale to the highest bidder. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev himself has acknowledged as much.

In foreign policy, Russia's failure to denounce some of Josef Stalin's aggressive actions, such as the incorporation of the Baltic states through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Hitler's Germany, further weakens Russia's image. Moscow's in-your-face petro-arrogance, while unsurprising after years of weakness and humiliation, sounds menacing, especially to Russia's neighbors.

Despite this, it was the Saakashvili government that was the aggressor on Aug. 7, because the hotheaded Georgian president operated on the basis of two dangerous illusions.