In der heutigen International Herald Tribune analysiert Thom Shanker den Feldzug. Seine Analyse zeigt, wie nachgerade lächerlich es ist, den Russen immer noch abzunehmen, sie seien "zum Schutz der Bevölkerung" von Südossetien dort einmarschiert, als Reaktion auf den Angriff auf Tschinwali.

Es war alles monatelang geplant, "generalstabsmäßig", wie man so sagt. Und die Georgier waren auf diesen Überfall erschreckend schlecht vorbereitet.

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Zitat von New York Herald Tribune

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Russia's victorious military blitz into the former Soviet republic of Georgia brought something old and something new — but none of it was impromptu, despite appearances that a long-frozen conflict had suddenly turned hot. (...)

So along with the old-school onslaught of infantry, armor and artillery, Russia mounted joint air and naval operations, appeared to launch simultaneous cyberattacks on Georgian government Web sites and had its best English speakers at the ready to make Moscow's case in television appearances. (...)

"They seem to have harnessed all their instruments of national power — military, diplomatic, information — in a very disciplined way," said one Pentagon official, who like others interviewed for this article disclosed details of the operation under ground rules that called for anonymity.

"It appears this was well thought out and planned in advance, and suggests a level of coordination in the Russian government between the military and the other civilian agencies and departments that we are striving for today."

In fact, Pentagon and military officials say Russia held a major ground exercise in July just north of Georgia's border, called Caucasus 2008, that played out a chain of events like the one carried out over recent days.

"This exercise was exactly what they executed in Georgia just a few weeks later," said Dale Herspring, an expert on Russian military affairs at Kansas State University. "This exercise was a complete dress rehearsal."

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Zitat von New York Herald Tribune

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At the start of the fighting, the Georgian Army's First Brigade was in Iraq, and subsequently was airlifted home aboard American aircraft — but without their war-fighting gear. The Fourth Brigade was in training for the next rotation to Iraq. The Second and Third Brigades were in western Georgia, closer to Abkhazia than to South Ossetia, where the fighting started.

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