Susuto

@widgetmaker
“So why did Russia open up a second totally unnecessary front in another region which it has even more tenuous claims over?”
First of all, Russia didn’t open second front, it was government of Abhazia. I don’t justify them, but they did everything they could to prevent losses of civilian lives in upper Codori, unlike Georgian, who started bombing without notification, look up in the Internet. Second, why would you say that it is totally unnecessary? There are a treaty between S.Ossetia and Abhazia about military support, and it was Russian peace keepers who prevented full scale war between Abhazia and Georgia.

“Why did it push into Georgia when their military has already been decimated”
What would you do? Remember Kuwait? The best way to prevent such irresponsible actions is to totally destroy military capabilities of aggressor. Best evidence that it was retaliation against military and not civilians the scale of deaths (I know it sounds awful). How many victims would you project in a bombing of civilian city by NATO? Now look at data from Georgian side…

“Why is it dragging its feet on withdrawing.”
What do you mean by that? Police and government officials fled to Tbilisi. No food in Gori and Senaki. Maradeurs and killers around. Isn’t it responsible to stay and wait until police and government returns? Imagine that Russian army leaves and then chaos starts for 2-3 days. Guess who would be blamed?

“Russian has been pushing out Russian passports and identities to residents for a while.”
I asked that many times, why would you choose a citizenship of Russian authoritarian state over democratic and economically booming Georgia?

“Russia recently carried out military exercises on the border for just this kind of thing.”
Maybe, but you forgetting that Georgian and US military at the same time carried military exercises maybe for just this kind of thing that we saw in S.Ossetia. Do we blame US for that?

“Putin hates Georgia’s leader and wants to show the power of a resurgent Russian to bot the world and other close by nations.”
Well, politics is a job where you smile at the very people you hate, isn’t it? Don’t you think that man who lead Russia during 8 years despite its critics inside and outside could control himself? And if it is known fact, so that you can state it so confidently, wasn’t it stupid for M.Saakashvili to give a reason to Mr. Putin? And what power are you talking about? Its became kliche of some kind, somebody wants to show its power to somebody… Please be reasonable and talk facts or at least add IMHO.

“The gains have been enormous for them, demonstrating that there is a clear motive and logic behind the attack.”
Gains for who?

“It also weakens Georgia’s claims to being a secure oil transit that bypasses Russian and Iran further benefiting Russia.”
Well and who’s fault is that? Imagine that they won in S.Ossetia and there was no Russian intervention. Wouldn’t it start hatred and possibly terrorist activities in the area and thus weaken Georgia’s claims even more?

“The fact is anyone who thinks that Russia did this out of a sense of duty to the people there is deluding themselves. No Georgia is not innocent in this but Russia’s response was disproportionate, very calculated and an extremely clever move in the short term.”
Well, I don’t think that it was simple sense of of duty or compassion, but it was there too. However, the single claim that I see in your statement is that answer was disproportionate. And I already answered your question above, that you should prevent future aggressions, isn’t it what has been done in Desert Storm operation, Israel operation in Livia, Iraq, Folklend Islands?

Well, I have many source of news, don’t watch MSM, don’t read conspiratorial websites, come to Digg not for news but for fun. Where do you get your news, am I right, are you an Intelligent officer of some kind?