Wretchard,

In analyzing this fight, the Georgian leadership comes off looking very Janus like.

The Georgian political leadership (AKA President Saakashvili) was stupid to start this fight, but the Georgian military leadership was very reality based in dealing with the military position it was in through out.

The Russian forces shot off the 58th Division’s artillery basic load driving the Georgian’s out of the city of Tskhinvali and the pass behind it. After that, the Russians seemed to rely on airpower while the 58th’s logistics caught up, (and it’s command structure got over losing it’s commanding general to a Georgian air strike on the second day of the conflict).

The Georgian military leaders’s figured out the logistical implications of the Russian position, and their own under Russian air superiority, and hot footed it back to that river crossing at Mtskheta, outside of Tblisi. They fell back on a strong position that could not be flanked or turned without a “Taking of Grozny” level of military firepower

I don’t think the Russians had the logistics for another Grozny, which is the level of effort that would be needed to take Tblisi, at least not quickly enough for Putin’s political time table.

So the Georgian Army survived and thus the Georgian state.

That said, Pres. Saakashvili is toast. If he doesn’t lose his nerve or those around him don’t. He will get thrown out by Georgian voters in the next election for being an idiot.