"On 8 August 2008, Georgia became a victim of a direct large-scale military aggression by Russia. The Georgian airspace was invaded several times since the early morning. The Russian jets bombed Kareli and Gori towns, as well as Shavshvebi, Variani, Tsedisi villages. Practically, within 20 minutes, the territory between Ksuisi and Khelchua villages was bombed. The Russian jets were flying over Tskhinvali, Marneuli and Gudauri for rather enough time. Majority of the abovementioned populated regions are located beyond the conflict zone."
August 8th is after Saakashvili launched his attack. Saakashvili was warned not to attack South Ossetia. Russia was poised to strike. When Saakashvili unleashed his assault on a civilian area (Tskhinvali) Russia responded.
As harsh as Russia's response has been, how would you like it if Russia had responded as NATO did in Yugoslavia, by bombing Tbilisi? Or if Russia launched a GRAD missile attack on Tbilisi, like Saakashvili did on Tskhinvali.?
I appreciate Georgia's support in the WOT, but I'm not about to give them a blank check when their leader is so stupid!
As bad as things were, they are much worse now!
Something else to chew on...
The U.S. ambassador to Moscow, in a rare U.S. comment endorsing Russia's initial moves in Georgia, described the Kremlin's first military response as legitimate after Russian troops came under attack."Now we see Russian forces, which responded to attacks on Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia, legitimately, we see those forces now having advanced on to the soil of Georgia; Georgian territorial integrity is in question here"“We did not want to see a recourse to violence and force and we made that very, very clear”
“The fact that we were trying to convince the Georgian side not to take this step is clear evidence that we did not want all this to happen"
“We have seen the destruction of civilian infrastructure, as well as calls by some Russian politicians to change the democratically-elected government of Georgia. Some question the territorial integrity of Georgia. That is why we believe that Russia has gone too far