The war began with a Georgian assault on South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali and an accompanying artillery barrage which killed a dozen Russian peacekeepers -- just as all eyes were focused on the opening of the Beijing Olympics
In the meantime. It is 10th Anniversary of Russian-Georgian War, known in Russia as 080808. In five days Georgian Army, trained and partially equipped by NATO and Israeli instructors was utterly demolished by allegedly backward Russian 58th Army and sent the message which Washington still cannot comprehend to this day.
And by comprehension I mean internalization and application of the message to practical activity. When even Condoleezza Rice had to admit that it was Saakashvili and his nation whipped into the nationalistic frenzy who started the war, it is the time to really reassess (yeah, yeah, any minute now) a geopolitical reality.
Just to demonstrate a complete imbecility and incompetence of most American "observers" of that war, here is the "pearl" of military "wisdom" from Strategic Studies Institute. Get this for fun:
“Indeed, at the tactical level, in direct fire engagements between Russian and Georgian units of relatively equal size, Georgian forces seem to have inflicted more damage than they suffered. In part, this was due to superior Georgian equipment—many Georgian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles were equipped with reactive armor, night vision equipment, advanced radios, and superior fire control systems installed under contract by an Israeli defense firm, while most Russian vehicles lacked these improvements.
Georgian forces also benefited from training administered by U.S. and other Western countries designed to prepare them for their deployments to Kosovo and Iraq. While generally focused on stability operations or counterinsurgency, this training taught skills relevant to conventional engagements at the tactical level as well—skills such as reacting to contact and using firepower to support maneuver against the enemy. "
How Georgian Army, utterly demolished by forward units of the 58th Army, with most of those 58th Army tanks being re-deployed from exercises with much of their ammo still being practical (that is blank—for training purposes), "benefited" is difficult to comprehend. I have a dirty joke about that but I will abstain.
Already then Russian Army was in the transformation process and for all its ills and mistakes in that campaign, the outcome was never in doubt (well, except for many Western "analysts"). As General Khrulev said himself yesterday—the difference between then (2008) and today (2018) would be that today Russian Army would demolish Georgian Armed Forces not in 5 but in 2 days (in Russian). I guess this is the main reason which drives Washington's establishment insane and we can observe that in real time.
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