Georgia's South Ossetia Conflict - Military Commentary

[Culpeper]

Could someone please explain to me what happened? Didn't Georgia start an offensive that Russia was prepared for and and then Russia made sure Georgia couldn't wage war for some time?

[kaur]

Culpepper,

This is the question of the year. EU foreign ministers decided to send their investigators (if this is the right word) to Georgia to find out how the war really started. At the moment there is Shaakashvili's word vs Russia's word. To be more precise the question is "Were Russian tanks in Roki tunnel 07.08?" I understand that Russian units were guarding the Roki tunnel entrance on the South Ossetian side with their air defence weapons and in North Ossetia's capital Vladikavkaz there were located many Russian units, that had their own rapid reaction units (due to the constant low intensity conflict in that region). They were located really close to tunnel. Russians say that these rapid reaction units enterd South Ossetia first and only after the Georgian attack. If in the end it comes out that Georgians saw ghost tanks, then I dare to compare this situation with the beginning of 2003 war, when Bush saw ghost bombs. .... AND then The Economist should apologise (again); like they did after the US failure to present the world with evidence. In the general picture this fact turns everything upside down and a lot of people have to eat their words.

[badtux]

To be more precise the question is "Where Russian tanks in Roki tunnel 07.08?"

That actually is a detail that does not change the accuracy of the thumbnail description. Russian tanks in the Roki Tunnel would not change the fact that Georgia launched an offensive upon South Ossetia that Russia was apparently prepared for and responded to -- Georgian tanks crossed the South Ossetian border and entered Tskhinvali hours before the Russian response force arrived. The location of the response forces at the time of the Russian response to the Georgian offensive, whether in North Ossetia or South Ossetia, is a detail rather than a contradiction of any thumbnail description of the military action. It's an interesting detail, and one that would be nice to know the answer to, but still does not contradict the overall thumbnail description given above, that is:

Didn't Georgia start an offensive that Russia was prepared for and and then Russia made sure Georgia couldn't wage war for some time?

The political questions of whether Russia had a "right" to station response troops on the South Ossetian side of the Roki Tunnel, or whether Georgia had a "right" to launch an offensive if the Russians indeed did so, are left to the political thread since they are not military questions and do not affect the overall summary of the military situation.

[Render]

It should be noted that Russian Cyberwar attacks on Georgia preceeded the Russian tanks in the Roki Tunnel by several weeks.

July 22nd, 2008

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1533

"Georgia President’s web site under DDoS attack from Russian hackers"

THREATENED
WITNESS,
R

[kaur]

badtux said:

The location of the response forces at the time of the Russian response to the Georgian offensive, whether in North Ossetia or South Ossetia, is a detail rather than a contradiction of any thumbnail description of the military action.

I think that that would be one huge scandal; as if Soviet troops entered just 1 m under the Brandenburg gates in a rush to come to help West German "peace organisations" in Berlin

I do understand that there was a regular traffic flow of military vehicles between South Ossetia and Russia during the last 17 years. SO troops were trained a lot by Russians in a former training base in SO and military exercises took place in the 58th Army training grounds in North Ossetia. Maybe just another such column was moving towards SO and the Georgians overreacted?

[kaur]

Russian Air Force after Georgia, part 1

Flight's Moscow correspondent Vladimir Karnozov guest-blogs this week with a five-part after action report on the Georgia Air War, obviously from the Russian perspective. Karnozov is kindly filling in while this blogger is traveling all week on an assignment. Here's part 1.

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/th...er-georgi.html

[kaur]

CONTENTS

Editorial

Saakashvili: “War At Last!”



International Relations

Conflict in South Ossetia: Political Context

Implications of the Georgia-Russia War for Global Politics



War And People

The August War between Russia and Georgia

Force Development and the Armed Forces of Georgia under Saakashvili

Georgia's Air Defense in the War with South Ossetia

http://mdb.cast.ru/mdb/3-2008/