The war in Georgia

[gugi]

Well, since the other thread deteriorated rather quickly but it is still a current event I thought I'd start a new thread and hopefully it will remain civil. I am interested to know what people think about this conflict anyways.

I believe had it not been for the war of the last few days, most people wouldn't have had any idea of what the actual situation is. So making up one's mind based on whatever information one has gotten from the media over the last few days seems a bit hasty.

I'm from the neighborhood so I was kind of aware, but I haven't followed closely and was surprised at the events. Most media coverage in US has been pro-Georgian, no surprise as the country became 'democratic' few years ago with the backing of US. Russia, of course, accused US and the west in meddling in sovereign country's business, but their interests are in South Oetia and Ankhasia regions, not in Georgia itself, so they didn't go into conflict back then. Nevertheless Russia expelled a lot of georgians who were working there and kept 'peacekeeping' forces in the autonomous provinces that are predominantly of russian etnicity.

Of course, by itself Georgia stands no chance against Russia, which has now become obvious and they have embraced the idea of joining NATO and even EU. Joining in Iraq and accepting US soldiers is just part of the price to pay.
In any case after US and EU backed the independence of Kosovo it seems a bit dishonest to consider the South Osetia and Abkhasia integral part of Georgia. It is now evident that Russia was prepared to take over, and Georgia has miscalculated their chances. It would seem that they expected once they push out the russian 'peacekeeping' forces US and EU will back them before Russia has time to react.

As I said I was surprised that Georgia started the offensive, but that's just because I haven't been following the events there. In fact they recently purchased the stockpile of soviet-type of munitions/weaponry of Bulgaria (which joined nato and transitioned to the new standards). Most certainly that didn't escape the Russians who with their strong energy positions most certainly can afford to confront the rest of the world.

What I think - bummer for the georgians, at least they supposedly got a democracy out of the deal. If they use it wisely they'll still come ahead in few generations. I can't help but wonder if the georgian government decided to just get over this conflict one way or another.
Now that this separatist problem is done, there are still few others, the most notable of which is the Kurds. And then there's Armenia/Azerbeidjan....