Georgia is not innocent here. Tensions have been high in the region long before Georgia was ever formed. On August 7th Georgia attacked with armor and artillery killing sleeping South Ossetian civilians. Their peacekeepers also turned on and killed Russian and South Ossetian peacekeepers. It was a horribly stupid move on their part.
Here is some background on South Ossetia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Ossetia
And some less biased prewar (2006) info:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-caucasus/south_ossetia_4100.jsp
Just because we are the US, and Russia is Russia, does not make Georgia any less stupid or reckless.
"The South Ossetian leadership, despite having legitimate grievances against the Georgians, is mired in suspicion and introspection, making endless statements about "provocations" and "conspiracies" from the Georgian side, but reluctant to let in people (such as foreign journalists, regional analysts and constitutional experts) to whom they could put their side of the story."
I guess you probably missed the early reports showing that the Russians had actually evacuated in buses the women and children from the capitol of South Ossetia a few days before they began shelling Gori, eventually provoking the Georgians into military action.
the facts and realities don’t matter to tuff guys and gals
i cannot believe that on a usually fairly intelligent forum that we have clowns who think Georgia acted like angels and that we should risk nuclear obliteration as a result...over Georgia?
it’s hysterical
what sort of historical perspective do these geniuses have?