Wretchard,

The Georgian Army still exists, thus the Georgian state still exists.

The Georgians did well to survive. They were fighting under enemy air superiority and the Russians took out their military communications network from the get go.

The Georgian Army abandoned all their extended positions to the higher operational tempo Russians forces and redeployed to a much lower operational tempo terrain (the urban belt approaching Tblisi and the mountains behind it) where they could use land lines, couriers, cover and concealment to deal with the invasion.

The Russians could not bag the Georgians for reasons of logistics and training. They did not have the night vision technology on their planes and the skilled troops to pursue the Georgians at night.

That meant that Russians had to prepare for a major siege and break in of the approached to Tblisi under the eyes of the international media.

Putan chose to for go that battle.

Will the Georgians submit now to the Russians? We shall see.