They didn't fire first-see below. Quit believing the AP (Al-Q Press) and the russians. Also the tantrum they have been throwing over a limited and strictly defensive missile system is BS. And no, we wouldn't have a problem if the russians installed the same type of system near us.
Michael J. Totten
August 26, 2008
The Truth About Russia in Georgia
...Virtually everyone is wrong. Georgia didn't start it on August 7, nor on any other date.
The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At the same time, the Russian military sent its invasion force bearing down on Georgia from the north side of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian side of the border through the Roki tunnel and into Georgia.
This happened before Saakashvili sent additional troops to South Ossetia and allegedly started the war.