This discussion group has seemed to settle into the steady state belief that Russia exhibited perfidious behavior and “suckered” Georgia into attacking South Osettia so Russia could attack Georgia and this is proved beyond doubt by the observable fact that Russia was in position to react quickly to the Georgian thrust.

There is another scenario that fits the observable facts. Russia utilized good intelligence gathering and just plain common sense observation of the escalation of activities by the Georgians and South Osettians. They were ready because that is what good military commanders and staff do. And another observable fact is that the Russian military exhibited all the general characteristics of effective, well thought out military tactics and stategy.