Posted on 08/11/2008 1:29:34 PM PDT by brytlea
Georgia’s army was in complete disarray tonight after troops and tanks fled the city of Gori in panic and abandoned it to the Russians without firing a shot.
As Russian armoured columns rolled deep into central and western Georgia, seizing several towns and a military base, President Saakashvili said his country had been cut in half.
For the first time since the crisis erupted last Thursday, Russia admitted that its troops had moved out of Abkhazia, the other breakaway region under Moscow’s protection, and seized the town of Senaki in Georgia proper.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
To: henkster
They have a force of roughly 14,000 military personnel. I think that includes all the services put together.
The odds for them are... not good.
No.
Actually Russians beated Georgians at 1:1 ratio
When Georgians pushed into Osetia they outnumbered Russians 14:1.
Georgians attacked with 14,000 men (out od army of 38,000) but Russians crushed them in osetia with as much as 7,000 and 58th army deployed as much as 14,000 against Georgians.
Better question: what can he do? Militarily, I don't think there's anything that we could try that would be both direct and effective.
Beyond that, I don't think there's anything "military" that we can do in Georgia that won't be interpreted by the Russians as an act of war -- and the ugly choice facing the President is whether or not Georgia is worth getting into a serious war over.
Short term, I think the answer is that there are no military options: Georgia has to be considered a lost cause. Longer term, though, I think we have a number of strategic options ... all of which take us back to a more Cold War stance. We can, for example, provide additional aid to the next likely targets, such as the Baltic countries, Poland, the Ukraine, and so on, in order to make further Russian advances much more painful.
One further note: the Russian attack on Georgia has to serve as a very rude reminder to the Europeans, especially in regard to their energy supplies, of which Russia appears to be gaining significant control.
I think their views on Iran may well harden as a result of this.
Nice to see the Onion-domers chiming in for solidarity with their savage cousins.
You are right. Make Georgia a second Afghanistan for the Russians.
It’s WW2 all over again.
Morale certainly collapsed rather quickly considering this whole thing only started on Friday. This just goes to show that the Chechens are a special case in the region. Their fighting ability and determination are just not matched in the region as a whole. Islam and the belief in the 70 virgins probably has a big role in that.
On the other hand the quick collapse of the Georgian military that is US and Israeli trained will have military planners in Washington going back to the drawing board.
By doing that you’re conceding the country to Russia. Guerrilla warfare is seen after a country is taken over. They should ask the French for pointers.
Im shocked aswell.
To be honnest, Iw never expected this to happen.
Orthodox christians killing each other. Horror:(
BS. How many planes, tanks and artillery uses Russia vs. Georgia. Infantry is secondary.
Was it a case of sheer numbers?
We leased a lakehouse this summer from a woman whose husband is there. I pray he will be ok.
susie
That ‘community activist’/community organizer is a student of the Alinsky school of Marxist ‘change’. It is more likely that Obama would side with the Russians in their expansionist behavior.
The neo Soviet Union is killing thousands of Georgians for no good reason other than to control the oil pipeline and imperialistically seize a free and sovereign nation.
This is what the left accuses the US of, but which we never do. Now that their mentors in the Soviet Union are actually doing this, where are their screaming faces and protests? Oh, wait, I just answered my own question in that last rhetorical question.
Agreed.
If the Turks come to find they don’t like the bear on their border they would make a good staging area, and the Rooskies have a lot of pipeline to guard now.
It only took 18 years for them to forget why they had to change their name and flag.
If we only knew someone with insurgency experience, tactics, IEDs, etc., drumming fingers . . .
If someone did something like that we could get worse. Think WW2. Hitler was an absolute hero to a demoralized people. The Russians have been demoralized for a while. This invasion gives them the taste of power they have longed for. Do something to the guy giving them the power and they will put a worse tyrant in his place. Not sure what the solution is, but I sure wish we were in military shape to handle the challenge right now. If Bambi gets elected, we will pass the point of no return in that regard.
The Russians will not attack Tblisi, nor will they occurpy any Georgian territory besides the two "disputed" regions in the north.
Their incursions into Georgian territory proper are temporary and meant to neutralize the Georgian military and secure the disputed regions from attack by the Georgians.
At least, that's MHO.
If the Russians intended to take Tblisi, it would already have fallen in the blitzkrieg. It would have been easy for them.
It's apparent the stated limited goals of the Russians are in fact all then intend to achieve.
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