Don't forget Georgia

By Fester:

I did forget Georgia.  Until today, Georgia has most of a small infantry brigade in Iraq.  However with the increasing probability of war with Russia over South Ossetia, Georgia is calling in all the forces it controls.

President Saakashvili said Georgia was pulling out its troops from Iraq amid, what he called, open military aggression by Russia in South Ossetia.

“One brigade of the Georgian armed forces is in Iraq and we are calling it back tomorrow,” Saakashvili said in a live interview with CNN on August 8.

Rapid withdrawal as another conflict zone pulls foreign troops out of Iraq and towards another region that could de-volve into another failed state zone....

Update Dan Nexon at Duck of Minerva is passing along the Georgian President's requests for outside assistance.  The following is speculation, but one of the tangible forms of assistance that he may be seeking is rapid air transport of the brigade in Iraq back to Georgia.  He may be looking for a chain of US Air Force C-17s going from Tallil Air Base near An Nassiryah in Iraq to Tblisi International Airport.  That would bring this brigade home with most of its equipment within a week.  The next best alternative would be for the brigade to move to Kuwait, contract out to the Ukranians for heavy airlift of the equipment, and then fly the troops home commercial.  If the Ukranians refuse to lease out their heavy lifters, then the equipment would have to be sent by ship which would be a three or four week journey.  And at the end of that journey, delivery may or may not occur if the conflict is still active as the Russians could very easily blockade the Georgian coast.  So let's see where US airlift assets are right now.....