Here's Russia's deal no one is talking about in the news... in fact it seems to be suppresed in the Western News.
Several US Marine trainers (perhaps 2) were killed in the Russian reaction to the Georgian move on Ossetia. Georgia moved into South Ossetia with the help of mercenaries and some regular forces that are being trained by ex-IDF personell (Israeli Defense Force--check out the story on Debkafiles).
Several of the mercenaries were killed (black guys, Americans), and a handfull were taken prisoner by the Russians. Georgia moved in agressively when they believed that South Ossetia would break-away. 60% of the people there have Russian passports, or identify with Russia. 60% of Georgian are Muslims. This does the math for you.
Russia moved in when hundreds of their civilians were killed by Georgian forces--mercencary and regualars. President Shaskavili absolutely did not calculate the Russian response and he got hosed.
It would be like us trying to move into Canada's Western Territories, and the entire Canadian Army (assuming they could and were organized enough to do so) retaliated.
I'm no Russia or Putin lover, but in this case--they took care of business.
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