The Ossetians and Gerogians have been at war for centuries.
The South Ossetians want to be part of Russia, not ruled by Georgia.
Almost all of them have Russian passports.
It’s a mess. I don’t say the Georgians have no interests here, but this was a premedidated massive attack by Georgia which totally destablized a bad situation.
I don’t believe we should clean up this ethnic mess, which Georgia turned critical with their actions of the past 24 hours, and one hour after calling a ceasefire. That was clear treachery.
>Almost all of them have Russian passports.
That’s because Russia is trying to annex the province and gave them the passports. Georgia was too weak to go against it.
It would be like the US giving US passports to everyone living in Baja California.
Background at Strategypage.
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/russia/articles/20080808.aspx
The attack was in response to the breaking of the ceasefire, by the Ossetia separatists. They bear the responsibility, and by the speed of the Russian response, they were egged on, at a minimum, by the Russians.