What the hell is going on in Georgia?

Choice 1: Russian troops attacked Georgia unprovoked

Choice 2: South Ossetia has been trying to gain independence from Georgia and possibly reunify with North Ossetia (which is part of Russia) when Georgian troops went in to quell the uprising. Russian troops sided with South Ossetia.

Choice 3: There's a North Ossetia now!? I just found out there's a South Ossetia!

Choice 4: Russian troops are burning Atlanta on their way to the ocean

Choice 5: I don't know and I don't care, now watch this swing...

Choice 6: Other (please elaborate in reply)

Georgian forces and South Ossetian separatists have been exchanging heavy fire just hours after agreeing to a ceasefire and Russian-mediated talks.

Russian media reports said Georgia had launched a tank-led attack on the separatist stronghold of Tskhinvali, and airstrikes on rebel positions.

Georgia says it aims to finish "a criminal regime" and restore order.

At least 15 people are reported dead. Moscow called on the world community to work "to avert massive bloodshed".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7546639.stm

The Georgian Minister for Integration, Temur Yakobashvili, said Georgia's aim was not to take over the territory but to finish "a criminal regime".

The Rose Revolution was not a simple uprising but was aided by the CIA and Ambassador Richard Miles (think Serbia). From early 2002 onwards the CIA had been operating in Georgia, supposedly to combat Al Qaeda. And yes, Georgia is an odd place to fight the war on terror against OBL. One of the main groups that took to the streets and stormed the Parliament house was Kmer (meaning "enough") was almost certainly CIA funded. Saakashvilli was never the democrat and wonderful liberal he was made out to be. His was a strategic role. He would further US interests in the Caucasus, especially with respect to Caspian sea oil in return for US and EU protection. However, Saakashvilli could never guarantee total support at home and thus slipped into heavily using patronage (what other may call corruption) and strongman tactics. He vamped up the nationalist rhetoric and classed with Russia over Southern Ossetia (population 70,000, about the same as Tunbridge Wells). He called Georgia’s participation in the USSR as the "Soviet Occupation" and put up posters around the Capital Tblisi stating that entry into the EU and the European Peoples Party specifically was his key foreign policy goal. The Prime Minister mysteriously died. All the time the EU was favourable towards Georgia’s entry into the EU and the US pushed heavily for Georgia to be brought into NATO. Saakashvilli has viewed and presented membership of NATO as not being part of the "western alliance" but in terms of nationalism. If Georgia is part of NATO it can play hard ball with Abkazia and South Ossetia, the two Russian backed breakaway regions (for a good economist article by Tim Judah click here), with the power of NATO behind it. That is why this small, often forgotten nation is of great strategic importance: oil and "great power politics".

http://www.infowars.com/?p=3840, Jan 5, 2008