Article: Clinton Renews U.S. Claims On Former Soviet Space

For example, "Roughly a quarter of all supplies bound for Afghanistan travel via Azerbaijan.

"And since 2001, about 100,000 military personnel have also traveled through 'the Caucasus spur,' a designation that includes Azerbaijan, on their way to deployment in Afghanistan, according to Pentagon data.

"Beyond possibly probing a larger transit role, American officials are looking into the possibility of using Azerbaijan as a supply source. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense Industry signed protocols in mid-May with three US weapons manufacturers for the production of mortars, machine guns, grenades and cartridges....Defense Industry Minister Yaver Jamalov said on May 14 that the US companies' representatives will visit Azerbaijan soon to test the pilot products and possibly to sign contracts...." [29]

Battle For The Caucasus, Former Soviet Union As America's New Frontier

After leaving Azerbaijan on July 4, Clinton went to Armenia. Since at least last October she has been attempting - with some degree of success - to not so much assist as supplant the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Minsk Group/Process [30] in resolving the dispute over Karabakh.

Clinton's mission is to intrude the U.S. - and NATO - further into the South Caucasus by directing negotiations between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey. The end result is designed to limit Russian and Iranian influence in the region. Politically and economically. After all, Clinton is averse to "spheres of influence" as has been recorded.

The lingering conflicts that arose from the fragmentation of the Soviet Union - Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the South Caucasus and Transdniester to the northwest - are the pretexts for the U.S. and NATO to intervene in former Soviet space in the guise of mediators and arbiters.

The appeal to Armenia in this respect has resulted in that country sending its first troops to Afghanistan this year and may lead to its eventual departure from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization mutual defense bloc.

During the last leg of Clinton's five-nation trip in Georgia, the country's State Minister for Reintegration - that is, for forcibly seizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia - stated, "I would like to [recall] Clinton's statement in Krakow. She noted that Washington would oppose the annexation of the occupied territories by Russia. It is important to sign a charter of strategic partnership between the United States and Georgia, [to determine] bilateral cooperation." [31]

The resolution of the Georgia-Abkhazia and Georgia-South Ossetia conflicts, like the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Karabakh, may not be peaceful. Shortly before Clinton's arrival in the Georgian capital, U.S. ambassador John Bass [32] said that "The United States will never quit supporting Georgia and protecting its territorial integrity" [33], citing similar pledges by Assistant Secretary of State for Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Philip Gordon [34]:

"The President made it clear to President Medvedev last week and we've been
consistent in noting that we respect Georgia's sovereignty and territorial
integrity and we call on Russia to abide by its commitments in the August, 2008 ceasefire, which...called upon the parties to move their military forces back to where they were before the conflict began. And that hasn't been done. And we've been absolutely clear and consistent from the start that we believe that should happen...." [35]

Gordon also insisted that the U.S. had not and would not cease supplying the Saakashvili regime with arms, despite Russia calling on it to, as "Georgia is a sovereign state. It has the right to defend itself." He added, "The United States appreciates the contribution that Georgia has made to the peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan, and will continue to cooperate with it in the military sphere." [36]

The only sphere of influence in the former Soviet Union Washington objects to is Russia's. Since 1991 the U.S. has seen that vast expanse of land as its own new private preserve, the American empire's final frontier. Hillary Clinton's extended Fourth of July weekend trip to Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus is a renewed initiative to that end.