Why Not Ossetian Independence?
Why didn’t Georgia just give up South Ossetia? Does their “right” to secession trump Georgian sovereignty and national geographic integrity? Would it have been easier and avoided this conflict?
The answer is “no” to all of the above. Had Georgia simply given South Ossetia to Russia (which is really what would happen for all the talk of joining North and South Ossetia), the Russian fist would have been right down the middle of Georgia and given Russia effective control of the territory. All without a fight from Georgia. That would have made the Georgian government a non-entity immediately and Russia the controlling power. Georgia would no longer be free.
Would anyone in the United States have stood still for their government to do such a thing here?
Regardless of the much sped up conflict, had Georgia given South Ossetia to Russia, Russia would have immediately put a much larger military force inside Ossetia for “protection” instead of the smaller “peace keeping force” they had there as cover. They would have put many more air assets in the territory and these would have been within ten minutes of Gori and twenty of Tblisi. For all the reasons listed above that represents Russia’s current strategy, that made South Ossetia’s secession untenable and Russia’s presence a gun to the Georgian’s heads.
