When Prometheus stole fire for mankind, the Olympian gods punished him by chaining him to one of these rugged, inaccessible crags. Each night one of the region’s famed golden eagles came each night to devour his liver. To the Greeks these high mountains weren’t just the boundary between the Hellenic world and the barbarian lands; they were pillars dividing earth and sky.

Today the Caucasus Mountains mark the border between Europe and Asia (as is all too common in this part of the world, the exact demarcation of that line is disputed). Many different religious, linguistic and ethnic groups call the Caucasus Mountains home: more often than not, their relationships range from cordial dislike to open warfare.

It would be easy enough to write the whole region off as yet another remote tinder keg inhabited by the Near East’s version of unwashed and ill-tempered mountain men. Unfortunately, it is a strategically-located tinder keg. At present much of Europe’s natural gas and oil comes through Russian pipelines. Those who don’t trust Russia (or who would like to get their hands on some of those abundant Central Asian fossil fuels) would like to change that… and a pipeline wending its way through the Caucasus would break the Russian stranglehold.

Because of this, the various fighting parties are receiving funding and support from numerous outsiders. Old conflicts are fueled by new money as various sides use them and the Caucasian peoples as pawns in a new and expanded version of the “Great Game,” the 19th century intrigues between Russia and Britain for regional superiority. Generally this aid has been limited to arms and financial support; recent events have shown that Russia at least is now taking a more personal interest in Caucasian affairs.

The Bush administration has been pushing for Georgia’s admission to NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization). If Georgia had been a NATO member during the Russian blitzkrieg, we would be obligated under the terms of that treaty to defend their territorial claims. More plainly speaking, we would be in a shooting war with the Russians right now, in their backyard. In the best of times we would be hard-pressed to win a land war in Russia: Napoleon and Hitler couldn’t pull it off. With our current commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, these are hardly the best of times.

Since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 we have been taking the former Soviet Union for granted. Their sortie into Georgia has left us scrambling to rethink that stance. If our present actions doing little to discourage terrorists, they will likely have even less impact on Russia. Al-Qaeda does not have nuclear weapons; neither do they have veto power in the UN Security Council. Dealing with the Caucasus and its various peoples will require subtlety and far-sightedness – two qualities which have been notably lacking in American foreign policy.

Posted under The Caucasus Mountains