The current republic of Georgia was known as the kingdom of Colchis, where the Greek mythological hero Jason went to obtain the Golden Fleece. He and his companion faced countless perils and would have perished but for the fact that Medea, the princess of the realm was infatuated with Jason and being a sorceress (related to Circe of the Odyssey), used her magic and skills to betray her father. She eloped with Jason and the fleece, back to Thebes in Greece. Jason like many ambitious and older men, ditched Medea and went for a power and trophy wife, the daughter of the Theban king. Jilted Medea took her revenge by poisoning the Theban princess and killing her own two sons, Jason's only progeny. She sought asylum in another kingdom and left Jason despairing alone, with his children and ambition destroyed.

Georgia's most infamous son was and is Josef Stalin. He rose to become the tyrant ruler of the entire Soviet Union of which Georgia was one of the Republics. Georgia with its Mediterranean climate and hilly contours was a major supplier of fruits, vegetables and wine to Russia, its major trade partner. Under Soviet rule as a peripheral republic, Georgia was rife with corruption, black markets and smuggling. Things got worse during the last years of the Soviet Union in the late eighties. A Georgian dissenter from a prominent family named Gamsakhurdia led political protests and on dissolution of the Soviet Union went on to become the first elected president of Georgia. He made the same mistake as the Bandarnaikes of Ceylon with the Tamils, by policies of Georgia for Georgians while oppressing the 30% minority population of Russians, Muslim Caucasians, Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Seeds of secession were sown in two regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

His tenure was corrupt, inept and dictatorial and he was ousted and Shevardnadze, the former foreign minister of the Soviet Union took over the presidency of Georgia. Gamsakhurdia left Georgia, but returned to start a civil war in which he lost and committed suicide. Shevardnadze had obtained the assistance of Russian troops who remained as peacekeepers ever since like the British in Ireland hundreds of years ago. The Shevardnadze regime indulged in equally bad corruption, nepotism, black markets, smuggling and mafia tactics with increased crime and a deteriorating economy. He also tried to militarily conquer the two provinces and failed his atrocities were reciprocated by seceding ethnic enclaves and hundreds of thousands of Georgians were thrown out from the two provinces to become refugees in the Georgian capital of Tblisi.

The newest avatars of Jason were Clinton and Bush Jr. With delusions of grandeur. They wanted a new empire for America, the sole hegemon. Clinton broke his agreement with Russia and expanded NATO to Russia's near abroad, former satellites to contain and encircle Russia, collapsing economically and militarily. Bush Jr. became even more provocative after 9-11 and engineered a rose revolution in Georgia, an orange revolution in Ukraine, military bases in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The US has been giving military aid and training to Russia's former satellites, just like it did in Latin America, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria, promoting coups.

When it overthrew the government of Kyrghyzstan in the Tulip revolution, the Uzbek president Karimov wised up and threw America out of his country and invited the Russians back in. The new Ukrainian government fell apart and the new Kyrghyz president raised the rent for the US airbase by an exorbitant amount and gave a nearby airbase to the Russians. The absurd pretense of installing radars and ABMs in Poland and the Czech Republic to deter non-existent Iranian missiles is another lie by Bush to neutralize Russian missiles and be in a position for a pre-emptive strike against Russia.

In Georgia, America found a willing stooge in Sakashvilli who replaced Shevardnadze. He studied in America and has an American wife. As usual the US trained the military and gave arms but did nothing to improve governance and promote law and order. The policies were the same as in Afghanistan and Iraq where years of military occupation has brought nothing but insurgencies. Sakashvilli is bolder and more foolish than the run of the mill American puppet satraps and while the world's attention was on the Beijing Olympics, decided to use police action and military force to subdue its two rebellious provinces which have virtually seceded and have Russian military peacekeepers. There is no doubt that Russia has used its energy resources as a weapon and support to favored factions in Ukraine and Georgia to prevent them from becoming NATO bases surrounding Russia. Putin's policies are a natural reaction to America's policies and implicit threats, as are North Korea's and Iran's desire for nuclear arms to America's threats.

So two days ago Georgia sent its forces to take over South Ossetia and Abkhazia and it has led to large casualties of its forces and civilians. Sakashvilli's perfidy of killing his own inhabitants matches that of Medea and he will end up seeking asylum in America. Medea was just angry, scheming and vicious, while Sakashvilli is insane, blundering and stupid to have assumed that he could take control of the breakaway provinces before Russia woke up. He calculated that since he had gone along with the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline via Georgia which America built to bypass Russia from the Caspian energy resources of Azerbaijan, America would support his misadventure morally and militarily. America is up to its eyeballs in the quagmire of two losing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If Sakashvilli had studied history, he would have known that guarantees mean nothing for small nations of little consequence. Poland's integrity was guaranteed by both Britain and France and for it they started WW2. Nevertheless Poland suffered massive casualties, loss of independence, occupation for fifty years and got nothing but grief and casualties despite promises and incitement.