It was easy for Russia to take S Ossetia because they had room for manuever and could turn the Georgian flank. S Ossetia is a large bowl.

The road to Tbilisi narrows down into a long gorge with commanding hights and a steep-sided river with a road on one side and a RR on the other.

If Russian troops moved down this road, they lose room to maneuver and their column would be held up every time a vehicle was hit or just died. They would also have to resupply down this road. One arty barrage would lead to disaster.

The Russians would have to be stupid to commit anything larger than a BN to this road.

As for the US, it can conduct air operations out of Turkey for a very long time. Its flanks are the med which is controled by NATO. The US has more planes in Theater than Russia has operational in its entire military.

Bush asked his EUCOM and Centcom commanders what they could do and they rightly said “Win”

Putin is the neghborhood 6th grade bully caught beating up a little girl for her lunch money. Her Uncle has just come out of his house and is about to open a can of whoopass.