Georgia's South Ossetia Conflict - Military Commentary

[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.