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.
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