The Great Game Revisited 2

The first day working at Brunel and it is much of a muchness in the presessional scene, a sort of "deja vu, been there, done it, seen it before", feeling! Still, a routine of sorts is beginning to establish itself and that can only be good, the jobs a bit of a dawdle and well that is because of the "been there, done it, seen it before"; cannot teach an old dog new tricks, can you?

The routine appears to be that I will be going into Uxbridge either on a three minute, sixty pence, bus ride or by taking a fifteen minute walk after finishing teaching every day and, when I get there, there will be a serious reading of the papersbefore I take myself home. Today's reading of the papers saw me concentrate on the events in Georgia and the conclusion would have to be the Vladimir and George are not already having the hoped for chit chat and that Mr Saakashvilli has been brilliantly outplayed by the Russians who are now in Gori the birthplace of 'Uncle Joe' and some fifty miles away from the Georgian capital Tbillisi. Now they are not directly threatening the only non-Russian controlled pipeline from Central Asia and the Caucasus to the West via the Turkish port of Ceyhan but is it not just possible that they could be ready to up the stakes, force Mr Saakashvilli's resignation, and get a government in Tbillsi that they can influence? The evidence would, at least, appear to suggest that the Russians are at last turning the tide of American influence in their backyard.

It is all about the oil, of course, and the portents are, indeed, ominous. The British media are suggesting that Saakashvilli is the real loser but the thousands that have died because of his arrogance and foolishness are the very real losers. Furthermore, having experienced this slap in the face, while at the same time realising the stakes, the Americans might just decide to attack Iran sooner than expected through its proxy Israel.

The map above portrays the situation in Georgia.