[Lurker]

Ping

[Jeff Head]

The Russains bated the Gerogians by using their proxies to shell Georgian villages after an intital cease-fire between the forces. When the Georgiams responded, determined to stop the insurerection that had been ongoing in their own provice, the Russians attacked.

The advisability of doing that in the face of the Russian presence may be questioned, but not their right to do the same in their won country, within their own borders that the Russians themselves had internationally recognized to that point.

The only real "provocation" was on the part of the Russians and their South Ossetian proxies, and everyone knows it. The rest is just political posturing and smoke and mirrors to justify or obscure the actions and stances that the true agressors took, and have taken sicne that time.