Report from Tbilisi

Russia’s invasion of Georgia has unleashed a refugee crisis all over the country and especially in its capital. Every school here in Tbilisi is jammed with civilians who fled aerial bombardment and shootings by the Russian military—or massacres, looting, and arson by irregular Cossack paramilitary units swarming across the border. Russia has seized and effectively annexed two breakaway Georgian provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It has also invaded the region of Gori, which unlike them had been under Georgia’s control. Gori is in the center of the country, just an hour’s drive from Tbilisi; 90 percent of its citizens have fled, and the tiny remainder live amid a violent mayhem overseen by Russian occupation forces that, despite Moscow’s claims to the contrary, are not yet withdrawing.

On Monday, I visited one of the schools transformed into refugee housing in the center of Tbilisi and spoke to four women—Lia, Nana, Diana, and Maya—who had fled with their children from a cluster of small villages just outside the city of Gori. “We left the cattle,” Lia said. “We left the house. We left everything and came on foot because to stay there was impossible.” Diana’s account: “They are burning the houses. From most of the houses they are taking everything. They are stealing everything, even such things as toothbrushes and toilets. They are taking the toilets. Imagine. They are taking broken refrigerators.” And Nana: “We are so heartbroken. I don’t know what to say or even think. Our whole lives we were working to save something, and one day we lost everything. Now I have to start everything from the very beginning.”

Seven families were living cheek by jowl inside a single classroom, sleeping on makeshift beds made of desks pushed together. Small children played with donated toys; at times, their infant siblings cried. Everyone looked haggard and beaten down, but food was available and the smell wasn’t bad. They could wash, and the air conditioning worked.

“There was a bomb in the garden and all the apples on the trees fell down,” Lia remembered. “The wall fell down. All the windows were destroyed. And now there is nothing left because of the fire.”

“Did you actually see any Russians,” I said, “or did you leave before they got there?”

“They came and asked us for wine, but first we had to drink it ourselves to show that it was not poisoned. Then they drank the wine themselves. And then they said to leave this place as soon as possible; otherwise they would kill us. The Russians were looking for anyone who had soldiers in their home. If anyone had a Georgian soldier at home they burned the houses immediately.”

Her husband had remained behind and arrived in Tbilisi shortly before I did. “He was trying to keep the house and the fields,” she explained. “Afterward, he wanted to leave, but he was circled by soldiers. It was impossible. He was in the orchards hiding from the Russians in case they lit the house. He was walking and met the Russian soldiers and he made up his mind that he couldn’t stay any more. The Russian soldiers called him and asked where he was going, if he was going to the American side.”

“My husband said he was going to see his family,” she said. “And the Russians said again, ‘Are you going to the American side?’”

“So the Russians view you as the American side, even though there are no Americans here.”

Senator John McCain may have overstated things a bit when, shortly after the war started, he said, “We are all Georgians now.” But apparently even rank-and-file Russian soldiers view the Georgians and Americans as allies. Likewise, these simple Georgian country women seem to understand who their friends and enemies are. “I am very thankful to the West,” Maya said as her eyes welled up with tears. “They support us so much. We thought we were alone. I am so thankful for the support we have from the United States and from the West. The support is very important for us.” She tried hard to maintain her dignity and not cry in front of me, a foreign reporter in fresh clothes and carrying an expensive camera. “The West saved the capital. They were moving to Tbilisi. There was one night that was very dangerous. The Russian tanks were very close to the capital. I don’t know what happened, but they moved the tanks back.” And my translator, whose husband works for Georgia’s ministry of foreign affairs, made a similar guess that the West helped save the capital. “The night they came close to Tbilisi,” she said, “Bush and McCain made their strongest speeches yet. The Russians seemed to back down. Bush and McCain have been very good for us.”

Likewise, the women seemed to understand what Russian imperialism has always been about—and not just during the Soviet era. “Why do you think the Russians are doing this in your village?” I said.

“They want our territories,” Nana said. “Some of them are Ossetians, too, not only Russians, and not only soldiers. Some are there just to steal things, from Ossetia and Chechnya.”

Russia doesn’t want to annex Gori permanently, in all likelihood. But it does want, as it always has, a buffer zone between itself and its enemies. It was George F. Kennan, America’s ambassador to the Soviet Union, who said, “Russia can have at its borders only enemies or vassals.” Now, Georgia has been all but dismembered. The opening phase of this crisis may soon come to a close, but it is shaping up to be merely the first chapter in a potentially long and dangerous era. “We will never forget this,” Lia said. “Never. Ever.”

but I’m not sure how long many Georgians would be willing to live like hunted bandits in the South Caucuses

Perhaps you're right. But I still think it'd give the Russians some pause to know they were going to invade a nation with 500,000 trained riflemen who would, at least initially, give the Cossacks and Chechens a very, very bloody nose.

Yamamoto's response to the question of if he was going to invade America is instructive, although not very applicable to this situation.

"Of course not. There would be a scoped rifle behind every blade of grass."

It's also no longer 1950. The Georgians wouldn't be alone in this. The Ukrainians and the Poles know they're next if they don't stand up this time.

Even the Belarussians aren't all that enthusiastic about supporting their Russian brothers.

Personally I think we could bring this thing to a halt if Western banks just froze the assets of the Russian kleptocracy until Putin pulled his troops out. That's what this is really about.

The oil and the money that flows to the crooks who 'own' those companies.

There's not much time for the Georgian government to instill the concept of Total Resistance into the Georgian people. I also recommend that long term, if the Georgians have a 'long term that is, practice of turning Georgia into a nation of riflemen along the lines of the Swiss Schutzenfest Every Georgian home should also have a rifle and a quantity of ammunition as a matter of law. In very short order Georgia, while it could be invaded, would never be conquered.

Lurker, thank you for caring about the Georgian people enough to suggest this. I am pinging a Georgian to read your post.

There's not much time for the Georgian government to instill the concept of Total Resistance into the Georgian people.

The link you gave to Total Resistance takes me to an Amazon.com error page, which I suspect is a reference to the guerilla warfare manual written by Swiss army Major Hans von Dach.

But of at least equal interest might be an English-language translation of the sequal effort to Von Dach's primer on how to fight back, titled Der Totale Widerstand II, Chemische Kampfstoffe [Total Resistance II: Chemical Weapons]), offering instruction about "Chemische Kampfstoffe für Widerstandskämpfer. Herstellung unter einer Besatzungsmacht mit einfachsten Mitteln im Küchenlabor" (Chemical weapons for resistance fighters. Production during occupation with the simplest of means in a kitchen laboratory).

which I suspect is a reference to the guerilla warfare manual written by Swiss army Major Hans von Dach

It was indeed. No home should be without that book. I didn't know he'd written a second.

Thanks for that.

Now I realize that Georgia is not Switzerland and that the terrain may not favor these tactics, but I'm certain that the prospect of 500,000 pissed off Georgians with rifles and the skill to use them would give the Russians pause.

Besides, making riflemen and riflewomen in a free society is never a bad thing.

No home should be without that book.

The techniques are a bit dependent on Swiss-like terrain and attitudes, though Von Dach's pragmatic approach covers principles and generalities as well. Still, those who live in the Desert might do better with a copy of Lawrence's Seven Pillars, while those who are really in wooded wetlands may find Spencer Chapman's The Jungle Is Neutral more useful for their AO and way of doing things.

No home should be without that book. I didn't know he'd written a second.

Quite a few others, in fact, since the Swiss determination between soldier and civilian is largely dependent on whether or not the units have had sufficient notice to mobilize. But check out eighteen of his, and other authors titles available *here*... including *Total Resistance* applications of improvised Sten Guns, Grenades and boobytraps. Scroll down a bit to get past the introductory text.

The Serbs with whom I've crossed paths have been intelligent enough to know that it was corrupt American globalists they should direct their ire towards, not the American people. And quite a few have family members in the US, probably more of a percentage than Polish-Americans.

Thanks, Archy. I'll take comfort in your experiences since the one and only I've had was only partly good.

Way back when Gore was running for the presidency, there was a very multicultural protest against him at one of his fund raisers (Tech Museum in San Jose IIRC). I went because Melanie Morgan of KSFO (at that time) was trying to make it, but there were also quite a few Serbs and the totally communist International Answer.

Melanie didn't make it and there didn't seem to be her kind of group there. There probably isn't anyone more anticommunist than I am, but I have to say the worker bees of IA were helpful and let me use one of their signs that I could agree with.

Interestingly, the commies with coiffed hair and big rings took an immediate dislike to me--I guess they could tell I wasn't one of them although we had a common cause that day.

Anyway, I ended up talking with some Serbs. One old man was very surprised that I knew a little about the incredibly rich mining area that was in danger of being grabbed away but he couldn't shake his distrust of America(ns). I talked for a longer bit with a young couple.

They were surprised that I understood how destructive the Dayton Accord/Agreement was to Serbia at the hands of the Clinton scum. I told them about FR and suggested they check it out to see what Americans who got some factual information thought.

I tried to make the point that the real enemy was the media who were demonizing Serbs and misreporting most news from the area according to their own agenda. I tried to make them see that Americans wouldn't have been antagonistic towards Serbs if they knew the truth.

I think I did convince the young couple, but otherwise all I got for my trouble was being photographed by fast moving men in suits and ties.

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