U.S. Efforts in Caucasus Underscore Global Fight

The Bush administration’s move toward deeper military involvement in the former Soviet republic of Georgia is the latest demonstration of how, with a world view reshaped by Sept. 11, the administration is thrusting America more directly into distant conflicts that have raged for years.

The United States has long been committed to a stable Georgia, just as it has been eager to see peace in Colombia and an end to a Muslim insurgency in the Philippines. But now, citing the threat of terrorism, the White House has expanded its military advisory role in the Colombian and Philippine jungles and in the former Soviet Union--a place where any U.S. military presence would even recently have been unthinkable.

“So long as there’s Al Qaeda anywhere, we will help the host countries root them out and bring them to justice,” President Bush said Wednesday in North Carolina.

Late last year, the Pentagon sent 10 Huey helicopters to Georgia, which borders Chechnya, where Islamic separatists are fighting Russian rule. A U.S. military trainer and six U.S. contractors have been in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, since November training Georgian personnel.

Pentagon officials are weighing proposals from military advisory groups that they make more aggressive moves to pursue militants in Georgia who, according to what is described as new evidence, may include members of the Al Qaeda network.

“There have been some indications of connections . . . of Al Qaeda in that country,” Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said.

Georgia has been on the route for Islamic extremists traveling between Afghanistan and other Central Asian nations and Chechnya. Insurgents from Chechnya have used the rugged country in transporting supplies and as an avenue of escape from the Russian military.

Although a direct combat role has been ruled out, the Pentagon may provide more equipment and step up the use of military trainers in Georgia. In response to published reports that 100 to 200 U.S. military advisors might be sent to the country, officials said the needs are still being assessed.

An escalation of involvement in Georgia comes after the United States has already established a military presence at bases in the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. They are part of a ring of new and expanded military bases established at 13 locations in nine countries near Afghanistan since Sept. 11.

Meanwhile, the avowed pursuit of Al Qaeda members around the globe has the United States closely watching such countries as Somalia, Yemen and Indonesia, which are among the estimated 60 countries where the terrorist group is thought to have cells.

Given the strong domestic support for the war on terrorism, these moves have spurred little open opposition at home. And some analysts sympathetic to the Bush administration said the U.S. move in Georgia is in keeping with the assertive stance Bush has taken since the September attacks.

“Our involvement there is a logical consequence of the new agenda,” said Gary J. Schmitt, executive director of the Project for a New American Century, a conservative advocacy group. At the same time, Schmitt acknowledged that U.S. forces may be required to remain involved in Georgia for some time, and longer than the Pentagon would like.

In fact, as the far-flung deployments mount, even some administration supporters say these engagements raise questions about how deeply--and how long--U.S. military forces will be committed in places that have been far outside the traditional sphere of American influence.

“The real issue is, how much of a commitment is this going to be?” said Daniel Goure, a defense analyst and former defense official. “Once you’ve seen Tbilisi and [the Uzbek city of] Samarkand, can you ever leave?”

An influential Democrat, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, warned Wednesday, “If we expect to kill every terrorist in the world, that’s going to keep us going beyond doomsday.”

The United States has been committed to trying to stabilize Georgia since the Soviet Union fell, hoping that it would serve as a strong independent counterbalance to Russia, and to supporting the government of President Eduard A. Shevardnadze.

U.S. officials had economic interests in mind, including an oil pipeline that they hoped could be built from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey, to provide an alternative to a route through Russia.

But the issue of Islamic militants also loomed large. The Georgian government has been unable to control the Pankisi Gorge in northeastern Georgia in the last three years. Chechen fighters, some reportedly with Al Qaeda links, penetrate the mountainous border freely, particularly in spring and summer.

Russian authorities have long claimed that Chechen fighters have ties to Al Qaeda, for example those linked with a commander named Khattab.

Russia has put intense pressure on Georgia to agree to a Russian operation to rid the gorge of Chechen separatists, a proposal Georgia firmly rejected. Nonetheless, Russian planes have bombed northern regions of Georgia several times in recent years, and recently Russian officials have claimed that Osama bin Laden was in the gorge.

The U.S. helicopter transfer was first agreed to by the Clinton administration, said Kenneth Yalowitz, former U.S. ambassador to Georgia.

Yalowitz said that as part of the agreement, Georgian pilots have been training at U.S. military flight schools for two years and U.S. military personnel have traveled to Georgia to assess the best place to base the aircraft.

The U.S. has also given boots and uniforms to Georgian border guards patrolling the porous frontier with Chechnya, helped plan military reforms and provided opportunities for Georgian military officers to study in the U.S., Yalowitz said.

Yalowitz stressed that the new U.S. interest should be seen as “part of a broader . . . relationship with a country that we want to see succeed--this is all not just something that comes out of nowhere.”

Even so, he acknowledged that “there is a new element to the relationship, a new urgency, which has arisen since Sept. 11.”

A senior U.S. military delegation of five arrived in Georgia on Wednesday for talks at the Defense Ministry on plans to train and equip Georgian forces in anti-terrorist operations. The delegation also visited late last year.

Russian reaction to the continuing U.S. moves into its border area has been one of marked ambivalence. Some voices are questioning whether the U.S. should be moving its troops so close.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov said in Moscow on Wednesday that any U.S. military involvement in Georgia would exacerbate the complex situation there.

But other Russian officials have signaled their satisfaction with the move.

Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the upper house of Russia’s parliament, the Federation Council, said Wednesday that the presence of U.S. advisors in Georgia wouldn’t harm Russian interests because Russia had long pointed out the terrorist problem in the gorge.

Several independent analysts in the United States said the move was likely to be seen as a victory for the Russian government, which has been trying to persuade the United States to treat the Chechen insurgents as terrorists and join its controversial fight against them.

Whether it is a win for the United States remains to be seen.

Ivo Daalder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former National Security Council aide, said he fears that the war on terrorism is “becoming a grab bag to justify everything [Bush administration officials] have ever wanted to do.”

He said he fears that the United States is turning to military solutions all over the world, much as the country did in the early years of the fight against communism.

“We need a debate in this country,” he said, “because there’s a real possibility we’re really overplaying our hands.”

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Times staff writers Esther Schrader in Washington and Robyn Dixon in Moscow contributed to this report.