Georgia, Georgia, No Peace Do I Find

Teaching is a profession full of surprises. You can be surprised when a diligent student fails to do an assignment. You can be surprised when a child student insists on demonstrating her new blowable marker pen and in the process gets red ink all over your clean, white shirt.

But on Monday, I got a very different surprise when the students in my adult business class (actually, my only class at the moment--my other students are on holiday and no new classes have been assigned to me) somehow got onto the topic of the war in Georgia and wouldn't get off of it. And ever since then, though I am thousands of miles from the Peach States (don't grimace--you knew this article would contain at least one U.S. Georgia-country of Georgia joke), I have had Georgia on my mind.

In case you haven't heard yet (you probably have, since apparently Washington is very interested in the matter), war broke out between Russia and Georgia over the weekend. I learned of this Saturday night, while having dinner with some of the other teachers at my school. Knowing nothing of the conflict, and assuming it was likely to be a small-scale military action, I was greatly surprised when my students told me 2,000 people had already died. My students were deeply concerned about the conflict because they all knew people who had sons the right age to be serving compulsory military service in the Russian army.

As near as I can tell, from having looked at what the BBC, the New York Times, and the all-reliable source of Wikipedia have to say about it, the dispute between Russia and Georgia concerns two breakaway provinces called South Ossetia and Abkhazia. These regions wish, for some reason, to secede from Georgia and become part of Russia. Georgia naturally doesn't wish to cede territory to Russia. Over the weekend, Russia went into Georgia on the pretext of aiding Russian citizens; I say pretext, because a teacher at my school who has studied Russia's foreign relations for years tells me that Russia has been issuing Russian citizenship and Russian passports to people in these regions solely to be able to justify military action on the grounds that these are Russian citizens.

My students had quite a lot to say about Russia's actions with respect to the crisis, none of it good. One student who had spent much of her youth in the Caucusus region said that the region has always been volatile, that virtually every man in the region totes a gun, and that at the tender age of twelve, boys are considered men (I knew not how to suggest to her that the people in the Caucusus might emulate Jews and wait until the ripe old age of thirteen, and confer manhood by gift of a fountain pen, but I digress).

Other students told me just about everything they could about military service in Russia. As I have already noted, Russia compels all male citizens to serve in the army for a period of two years unless they fall into various exempt categories. At one time, exemptions were given for males entering higher education, and, as higher education was free, this policy enabled many men to avoid military service. In recent years, however, the higher education exemption has been lifted, and so many men end up in the army who would not have a few years ago.

All three of my students were interested in contrasting Russia's military recrutiment with that of the United States. I explained that, in America, we do not currently have a draft but have had one in the past and may have one again if circumstances make it necessary. I explained further that, because college costs so much in America, many people enter the military in order to gain money toward their schooling. In America, many people think of this system as grossly inequitable and hypocritical, but to my Russian students, it seemed more enlightened than the egalitarian system Russia uses to supply troops to her armed forces.

The most surprising fact my students apprised me of is that the Russian army is considered a dangerous place to be even in peacetime. More seasoned officers are ruthless to younger, newer recruits, and I was told that the suicide rate in the army is quite high. This is undoubtedly another reason my Russian students are so enamored of the way America's military functions with respect to enlistment.

Looking at the conflict, I find myself uncertain who and what to believe. My own government says it is determined to support Georgia's efforts to maintain her territorial sovereignty because Georgia is now a free and democratic republic. Russia claims that it is acting to protect Russian citizens and that Georgia's actions provoked the conflict. Both sides insist they are acting in the interests of justice, not for geopolitical gain.

I find it difficult to accept either side's claims about the morality of the conflict because American history offers no real parallels for this kind of situation. Like any American, I know my country has dealt with a secession crisis that led to Civil War. I know full well that the Union had to fight the war; the alternative would have been the total unravelling of the fabric of the American nation.

But when the South seceded from the Union, it did so in a bid to establish itself as a separate country. Had the South seceded with the intention of, say, joining itself to Mexico instead, I don't know that, slavery or no slavery, the Union would have been as justified in fighting to prevent its departure. And that, as I understand it, is what Russia claims is happening in Georgia.

On the other hand, I cannot take at face value Russia's claim that it is acting only to protect Russian citizens. Certainly a nation is justified in using its military to get citizens residing abroad out of harm. But the "citizens" Russia is claiming to protect were made citizens solely to enable military intervention. The immorality of such actions is plain as day.

Today, peace broke out. Or, I should say, may have broken out--major news outlets disagree about whether Russia is honoring a cease-fire agreement. It remains to be seen what Russia and Georgia will do over the next few days. For the time being, like an old sweet song, Georgia will be on my mind.