The Bear

Here is an interesting summary of the state of the Russia-Georgia war.

http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/situation-report-russo-georgian-conflict

Kagan is a neocon, but I guess they know war... The most interesting thing I took from this is the personal aspect vis-a-vis Saakashvili. But this makes a lot of sense if you believe that Putin is just a simple kleptocrat - which I do. So this does look like a Genovese v. Gambino mob war. Though, again, its more like the Genovese versus a street pusher encroaching on their turf.

I don't buy the "reduce military capability" reason because a) Georgia just is not a military threat to Russia and b) unless you kill soldiers, weapons are easily replaced.

This is a message...all that is missing is the horse's head.