Gates: U.S. won't intervene in Georgia; 'Is that clear enough?'

Gates: U.S. won't intervene in Georgia; 'Is that clear enough?'

By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — Secretary of Defense Robert Gates took U.S. military action off the table to help the embattled Georgian army against Russian troops that remain the country, despite a purported ceasefire.

In his first public comments since the conflict began Aug. 7, Gates made it clear that the U.S. would not answer pleas from Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili that the U.S. military protect his country's ports and airports.

"I don’t see any prospect for the use of military force by the United States in this situation. Is that clear enough?" Gates told reporters in a briefing Thursday morning.

The comments came as officials in Russia made it clear that they favor redrawing Georgia's borders.

"One can forget about any talk about Georgia's territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.

Gates said the U.S. focus in Georgia would remain humanitarian. He noted that the second of two C-17 cargo planes carrying sleeping bags, medical supplies, cots and blankets arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, Thursday morning. A 12-member assessment team is also in Georgia to determine how much more aid that nation needs.

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