Oh come on, the conflict was going on for a long time
Oh come on, the conflict was going on for a long time. Us behind Georgia (no doubt about it - right?), Russia for itself. US wants to have an armed enclave close to Russia, and to allow alternative oil pipeline from middle Asia around Russia. Rusia surely doesn’t want that, is not happy with US-sponsored “rose revolution” in Georgia, doesn’t want Georgia in NATO and would like to kick this US-loyal Georgian president out and set Russia-loyal one. So, both sides are pursuing their interests and provoking each other. Maybe this time one of provocations had its sucess in taunting Georgians to attack without US approval. Maybe Russia waited for them to cause serious destruction in Tskhinvali in order not to be labeled as an initial agressor, and then retaliated according to the peace-keeping agreement. In any case, the situation behind the scenes can be as the one i described or somehow different, but US/EU media now have no other way left but to silence the fact that Georgians started mass shelling and claim that armed conflict started on Aug.9, not Aug.8. Russian media starts the conflict timeline from Aug. 8-th, with Georgians mass shelling of Tskhinvali and having 1500..2000 civilians killed. But what happened before that - was it Russian provocation or US ordered it do distract attention from sth else, or Georgians decided to start themselves - we’ll never know.