The historical presentation and viewpoint provide breadth to the claims and counter-claims coming from the region. In the presence of conflicting stories and propaganda, it is difficult to sort out the truth. Including here.

This complex story should be read more than once. I suggest reading it together with "Countdown in the Caucasus" which is the Financial Times' timeline and analysis, in the FT Aug. 27th. An equivalent account, from the Russian/Abkhazian/South Ossetian viewpoint, would be welcome. This story does not include anything about the role of the US and Israel in arming and training the Georgian army, even though it was well known that Saakashvili intended to retake contol of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In my view, Georgia was likely only to be able to retain nominal suzerainty, taking a cautious approach, before the recent disaster. It remains to be determined whether Russian tanks were already moving through the Roki tunnel when ... More »

It really doesn't get any better than this. Those of us who have read and researched this story figured out its main currents on our own, but Totten's piece fleshes it out beautifully so that anyone can see what really happened. The story is not a pretty one. And it is clear that matters were mismanaged, by the West and by Saakashvili especially. But the record needs to be set straight: This was a set up, plain and simple, with multiple Russian provacations carefully calculated to ensure that Saakashvili would eventually fall into the Russian trap. Putin/Medvedev are on the offensive, and the sooner the world faces that fact the more appropriate our response.

Taken together with the comments, this is a huge amount of information on the Georgian conflict. I am hesitant whenever one side is painted unequivocally good or bad, but the amount of ancillary information makes this a very interesting read.

This news report has very high journalistic merit. The author is one of the best informed American reporters on foreign affairs. He reports first-hand, from interviews with experts in Georgia and with soldiers, and provides an exact time line of the events, somthing that is missing from most pieces about the Georgia situation.