GovCentral

Or at least, based on their reasoning...they should.

How's that for controversial.  Think about it:

South Ossetia won its independence from Georgia about two decades ago.

Georgia won its independence from the USSR (AKA Russia and we all know it) about two decades ago.

Georgia does not want to be a part of Russia.

South Ossetia does not want to be a part of Georgia.

Russia has a democratically elected government...pretty much.

Georgia has a democratically elected government...of questionable intelligence/sanity/stability.

Since the main arguments in the US's amazingly limited arsenal of believable/non-hypocritical reasons to support Georgia (at least so far) appear to be "sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity", as far as I can tell the US should support Russia's reclamation of Georgia for the same reasons it supports Georgia's attempt to invade South Ossetia.

ALL RIGHT THEN!  BRING ON THE FLAMES!

Seriously...trying to get some participation going here.  Don't MAKE me come up with something even more controversial.  You've seen me on the death penalty...you don't want me writing about same sex marriage!

And while I'm talking about the Russian/US tension, anyone care to tell me why the Poland missile sheild is being made into such a big deal?  Fine, Poland gets 10 interceptors.  Russia should have just moved 20 missiles towards the area...making the 10 interceptors effectively pointless.  There, problem solved, and the US couldn't increase the number of interceptors without admitting they were aimed at stopping Russian missiles rather than Iranian ones.  It would be a response that re-enforces Russia's strength in the area rather than NATO'.  Instead they bitch and moan, making a big deal of the fact that NATO is rubbing Russia's face in the dirt so that no one can possibly miss it.

Ok.  Who wants to nominate me as International Minister of Simple Answers to Complicated Problems?

No the provice Georiga attacked was a rebelious province of Georgia. Russia stepped in with military support of the two provinces. This put Georgia at war with Russia. Russia has since declared it's support of independance of the two provinces.

South Ossetia and Georgia were originally independent regions/states before they were absorbed into the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union, complete with their own languages and everything.  It was only during the later part of the Soviet Union that Georgia was given control over South Ossetia (gosh...with a Georgian in charge of the USSR, I wonder how that could have happened).  Even while under Soviet rule South Ossetia had proclaimed its independence.  Violence broke out even before the two regions seperated form the Soviet Union, after which Georgia claimed South Ossetia--their justification for that is beyond me--and the fighting continued until Russia stepped in and put an end to it.  At that point the joint peacekeeping force made up of military from Georgia, Russia, and South Ossetia was formed.

Frankly, Georgia has never really had any claim to South Ossetia, and South Ossetia has CERTAINLY never believed itself a part of Georgia.  I don't know the exact percentages of the 1991 referendum but I know that the 2006 referendum (of which approx. 95% of the region voted) resulted in a 99% vote against being a part of Georgia.

So, what we have is Russia supporting a formerly independent region that has been effectively independent for decades even since the Soviet Union, and the US supporting a claim that's only basis is that our buddy Joseph Stalin, the giant teddy bear, gave his home country control for a few years.  Oh...there is ONE other basis...Georgia is our ally and Russia isn't.

another question...why do we even care?  this is their conflict...why are we even there?