Can one of you be kind enough to give a brief summary (albeit biased) of whats the history of this conflict? I read about Russia's attack this morning, and don't have the time to go through a long article about it.
South Ossetia was one of the 2 autonomous Oblasts in the Georgian S.S.R. The other is Abkhazia.
Ossetians are Southern Caucuss people that inhabit Ossetia , divided between Russia and Georgia.
As the break up of Soviet Union completed in 1991/1992, South Ossetia and Abkhazia declared a defacto independence form Georgia. At the time of this independence 70-75% population of South Ossetia's was comprised of Ossetians.
Prior to that 1989, South Ossetian Supreme Soviet had taken a decision to reunite South Ossetia with the North, Georgia SSR revoked that decision the next day.
The history of this conflict is longer then it currently seems. Georgia is riding on a horse right now, supposedly based on a presumption that west would support their cause, that is in turn based on their support for the west.
Saakashvili is commiting a mistake here though, by thinking he can re-occupy South Ossetia with force. Georgian troops bombed Tskhinvali(South Ossetia's capital) first before Russia entered its troops in South Ossetia.
Russia is supporting South Ossetian rebels based on it's own Ossetian population. US can travel thousands of miles to liberate Bosnians/ Kosovars and Russians can not across their borders??