OK, first you have to keep in mind that the Caucasus is a part of the world inhabited by lots of little tribes. Georgia is not actually an ethnonationalist state (though ethnic Georgian nationalists think it should be). These tribes all hate each other and almost all have a Warrior Mythology and believe in revenge killing and vendettas. Georgia has, in fact, in addition to the Abkhaz and Ossetians, about a dozen or so other ethnic minorities.
So as not to get too far into the past, I will start with the Soviet era. The territories of Abkhazia and S. Ossetia are not historically part of Georgia. Abkhazia was attached to the area by the early Bolsheviks after they quelled the Georgian secessionists, and S. Ossetia attached to it by Stalin. NB: In doing so he cut Ossetia and the Ossetians in two parts. The other half -- which BTW is where the Beslan terrorist attack occured -- is located to the north.
Fast-forward to the early 1990s. This was a period of intense ethnonationalism throughout the former USSR, and even more than usual in Georgia. I am not all that clear on the events of that period, but the short version of the events is that a former anti-Soviet dissident and ethnic Georgian nationalist named Gamaskhurdia came to power. As the USSR fell apart, the Georgian government established an extreme ethnonationalist policy (don't ask me for details). As a reaction, both Ablhazia and S. Ossetia declared independence (wanting at that time to stay in the USSR) out of fear of the Georgian nationalists.
One of those bloody (two, actually) wars of ethnic hatred burst out, with ethnic cleansing, burning of villages, massacres etc. occuring on all sides. However, as is usual, people only remember the crimes of others against them and not their crimes against others. In the end, both Abkhazia and S. Ossetia (with Russian backing, accounts of how much vary) obtained de facto independence. A peace deal was signed was South Ossetia, according to which a mixed group of Russian, Ossetian, and Georgian peacekeepers would be placed in the region to prevent a fresh outbreak of violence. The idea of sending European peacekeepers has been fielded several times, but, guess what, no European country was will to send them. However, as usual in such situations (cf. Kosovo), hostilities did not break off entirely, but continued on a low level (for instance, rare sniper fire, that sort of thing). Gamaskhurdia was deposed in a coup and Shardnadze, Georgia's only sane
president, came to power.
Flash forward to 2003. I will omit the details of the Rose Revolution and state simply that "US-backed Saakashvili came to power." Saak is an extreme Georgian nationalist who was perceived in Abkhazia and S. Ossetia as the second coming of Gamaskhurdia and who proclaimed that he was a new King David (the guy that united the Georgian lands ages and ages ago) who will get those Sacred Georgian Territories back, dammit.
Unfortunately, the US wooed Saakashvili for a variety of reasons (a win for Bush's "spreading democracy" program, desire for troops for Iraq, a US ally in the Caucasus, etc.). So, they gave him a lot of weapons and military training in order to deal with the Chechens who were hanging out in the Pankisi Gorge (I'm not going to get into detail on this) and probably in the hopes the Georgian army could be brought up to NATO standards. It seems all those military hardware boosted Saak's confidence to irrational levels. (HOWEVER, it should be kept in mind that the US seems to have talked Saak out of making military strikes against Abkhazia and S. Ossetia on several occasions, most notably Powell in 2004.) Naturally, it also scared the shit out of the Ossetians, who therefore requested that they be allowed to join the Russian Federation and be reunited with North Ossetia and received Russian citizenship in the hopes this would prevent a Georgian attack.
In November of last year, there was a huge popular demonstration against Saakashvili (whom the Georgian opposition has accused of murder, among other things), which he repressed violently, sending 500 people to the hospital, and shutting down all anti-Saakashvili media stations. The US clucked about this but didn't actually do anything. I believe this led Saakashvili to believe he could rely on US support no matter what, including in the case of military action.
Early this month, there was one of those silly little village flareups on the S. Ossetian border. Saakashvili declared a unilateral ceasefire and gave his now-notorious "peace speech." Two hous after declaring the ceasefire, he beganm saturation shelling of the S. Ossetian capital city of Tskhinvali with missile launchers and heavy artillery, apparently pretty much demloshing the place, killing who knows who many people and many peacekeepers (I have heard reports that the Georgian peacekeeping contingent shot their Ossetian and Russian colleagues in the back, but this has not been confirmed.)
To make a looooong story short, the Georgians actually almost took the city, but where held off by S. Ossetian militia and peacekeepeers. One and a half days after the beginning of the attack, the Russian army rolled in and ejected them. The Georgian army appears to have rapidly collapsed Iraqi-style thereafter, and the Russians made systematic attacks of military targets and airfields throughout Georgia. Georgia was thoroughly defeated pretty quickly (I guess that shiny American tech wasn't that useful after all) and Russia was in a position to dictate terms via Sarkozy -- moving of all Georgian troops out of S. Ossetia, partial demilitarization of Georgia, and a nonaggression treaty, basically.
So that's where we are now. Any more questions? I'm sure I left out a lot of stuff.
--- On Thu, 8/14/08, Julio Huato <juliohuato at gmail.com> wrote:
> From: Julio Huato <juliohuato at gmail.com>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Looting in Gori
> To: "Lbo Talk Lbo Talk" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> Date: Thursday, August 14, 2008, 7:49 AM
> Chris wrote:
>
> > How much detail do you want? A paragraph or a couple
> of pages?
>
> Couple of pages would be great.
> ___________________________________
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