What better way to note the opening day of the Olympics than with a new war. James Joyner reports that Russi has tanks rolling over the border into the Caucasus region of South Ossetia in Georgia. (For all of you who consider yourself “caucasian” this may be your homeland. Ok… enough snark.) Indeed, news reports have already begun pouring in about military activity in the region, and this morning’s television news is reporting that Georgia has shot down two Russian war planes and the Russians have bombed a Georgian air base near that country’s capitol.
Georgian officials said their military had fired on Russian planes and that their aircraft had bombed a convoy of Russian tanks that moved into South Ossetia, the pro-Russian enclave that has enjoyed de facto autonomy from Georgia since 2004. A local Russian official said the convoy was humanitarian.
Read Joyner’s piece for a good thumbnail description of the history of conflict in this region. This probably won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who follows the news from that part of the world. There has been bad blood between the Russians and Georgia since before the fall of the Soviet Union. The South Ossetia region has apparently long been more loyal to Russia and the old Soviet empire, but the Georgians see it as part of their turf. It’s actually a quite small parcel of land, and you can see a good map of the region here.
Here’s a question for the readers to bat about on Friday morning… do we have a dog in this fight? If so, why?