08-14-2008, 01:17 PM
Quote:Back in May the Russians shot down a Georgian UAV that they said was in Russian airspace. Might have been, might not. The South Ossetians are most definitely more sympathetic to Russia than Georgia, so one has to wonder who in the hell drew the lines on the map when the USSR broke down.
When the USSR conquered the whole area, the commies pretty much drew an arbitrary line in the sand.
When the USSR was falling apart, the Ossetians and the Georgians started knocking heads, as the former wanted to form a seperate country with North Ossetia - they boycotted Georgian elections, and were holding their own. I'd assume that the dividing line was based more on where the Soviet equivalent of a county was, and somewhat less on where Soviet troops were. (As I doubt they made a nice, long, curvy blockade all along the border, rather then the roads).
South Ossetia seemed to have been pretty happy about that situation (If we assume the 2006 (!) referrendum that ended up as "Yes for seperation" to be legitimate.) Georgia wasn't - hence the first war in the region. South Ossetia's been a problem for them for a while.
Quote:Dumb lines on the map is part of the problem, which is not unique to the old Soviet republics. The leadership in Europe are not going to expend blood and treasure on Georgia, no, they are not, so making it part of NATO, with article V protection, makes zero political sense.
Occhi
When in doubt, you can blame the commies. I'm still not too sure why the Georgians expected the West to start WWIII over them.