Your Call 081808 Assessing the Georgia-Russian War

What's really happening in Georgia? On the next Your Call, we'll dig beneath the headlines with the New York Times' James Traub, CIA critic Mel Goodman, and the Independent Institute's Ivan Eland. The United States sent advisers to build up the Georgian military, including an exercise last month with more than 1,000 American troops and Israel has sold weapons to Georgia. What is this conflict about? Is it about oil? Disputed territory? Why are the U.S. and Israel interfering in Russia's backyard? It's Your Call, Monday at 11, with me, Rose Aguilar.

Guests:
Mel Goodman
Senior fellow and director of the national security program at the Center for International Policy. He is former professor of international security studies and chairman of the international relations department at the National War College. He was division chief and senior analyst at the CIA's Office of Soviet Affairs from 1976 to 1986. He is author Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and The Wars of Edvard Shevardnadze.

James Traub in New York
Contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, where he has worked since 1998. On August 10th he wrote the Week in Review article about the Georgia-Russia war, entitled, "Battle Cry- Taunting the Bear." James Traub is author of the forthoming book, The Freedom Agenda: Why America Must Spread Democracy (Just Not the Way George Bush Did).

Ivan Eland in Washington DC
Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute. He spent 15 years working for Congress on national security issues, including stints as an investigator for the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Principal Defense Analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. His book The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed has just been updated and re-released.

Click to Listen: Assessing the Georgia-Russian War