Thanks for your thoughtful post. I think there is still a lot to learn for all of us about the past history of the region.
Wikipedia has this overview of the long history between Georgia and South Ossetia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian-Ossetian_conflict
The U. S. seems to have a large share in the responsibility for getting things to this point. It is our money and influence and “military advisors” in the region that have the Russians worried.
This sounds more like South Vietnam than the Sudetenland.
“The U. S. seems to have a large share in the responsibility for getting things to this point. It is our money and influence and “military advisors” in the region that have the Russians worried.”
LOL what a tool.
The “military advisors” might sound more provocative that it actually is. I think one of the head advisors was on the AEI panel. He said they were primarily training the Georgians for the war on terrorism. I think the Georgians only had some 16k full time troops. It wasn’t realistic for them to be training them for a manuever war with a major power. Even now we’re only sending in humanitarian aid to show the flag. I think we’re trying our best not to tweak the Russian’s noses, but they have to stop and get out, and letting these irregulars loose just makes people mad. I think the Bristish turned the Indians loose on the colonies during the revolution and lived to regret that too.