U.S. Official on State of the Georgian Army

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Daniel Fried, said on December 18 “many problems” identified in the New York Times article about the state of the Georgian army were “real.”

The NY Times reported citing a confidential Pentagon assessment conducted after the August war, that Georgian military forces suffered from widespread mismanagement and unqualified leadership.

“Certainly the Georgian military has made great progress in the past few years, but many of the problems identified in that article are real and much progress remains to be made,” Daniel Fried told journalists in Geneva.

Fried also reiterated Washington’s position on the causes of the August war and said they were “complicated.”

“We have always said it was a mistake for Georgia to move into Tskhinvali on the night of August 7-8th, but there had been severe provocations, attacks, violent acts, both by South Ossetian forces and over the past year even involving Russian forces,” he added.

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