Tbilisi admits miscalculating Russian reaction

[Subdivisions]

Source: Financial Times of London

Georgia did not believe Russia would respond to its offensive in South Ossetia and was completely unprepared for the counter-attack, the deputy defence minister has admitted.

Batu Kutelia told the Financial Times that Georgia had made the decision to seize the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali despite the fact that its forces did not have enough anti-tank and air defences to protect themselves against the possibility of serious resistance.

Unfortunately, we attached a low priority to this,” he said, sitting at a desk with the flags of Georgia and Nato (to which Georgia does not belong) crossed behind him. “We did not prepare for this kind of eventuality.”

The Georgian military felt there was only a low probability of a massive Russian counter-attack, despite the bloody way in which Russia destroyed Chechnya, on the other side of the Caucasus mountains, in two wars during the 1990s and the fact that separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia had Russian backing.


Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0d8beefe-6fad-11dd-986f-0000779fd18c.html

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Confirmation of what we already knew.

[YOY]

1. Opa...

n.t.

[dipsydoodle]

2. In plain simple english I guess he'd was saying

"Bit of a fuck up really"

[Turbineguy]

3. OK, Mr Bush,

You threw us under the bus and we fell on our swords. Now do we get a new metaphor?

[happygoluckytoyou]

8. yes.... now we are throwing the Straight Talk Bus on our Swords

[DailyGrind51]

19. Condi really did lead Shakashvili to believe that America had Georgia's back.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/15/15640/4637/1016/568514

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/8/16/141237/899

[DarthDem]

4. What Absolute Imbeciles

And they killed many South Ossetians too. Unreal. Scott Rasmussen would probably still show them up +3 in the polls, but I predict a swift political slide for Saakashvili and company.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. Imbecile

Some one who trusts the word of a neoconservative.

Yep.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Miscalculated

Georgians must be related to the British if they're that adept at understatement.

[ckramer]

7. These morons thought Bush wuold bail them out

Haha!

[INDIA]

20. "Haha!" ??? People are dead you ignorant ass. n/t

[happygoluckytoyou]

9. they need a coalition of the willing..... OURS IS BUSY GETTING KILLED SAVING IRAQ

sorry buddy.... looks like you THOUGHT you looked into Bush's SOUL.... it was just a PIT OF DISPAIR

[ogneopasno]

10. Bit of an understatement.

Geez.

[Hugabear]

11. Ya think?

n/t

[Supersedeas]

12. more facts that Condi and the WH Media machine would rather we ignore

[Dead_Parrot]

13. Well, Duh. nt

[magellan]

14. No kidding. Sounds like they got their plan straight from BushCo

...aka "Miscalculations R Us".

[AlphaCentauri]

15. keep miscalculating until NATO suit you for using their trade mark

"sitting at a desk with the flags of Georgia and Nato (to which Georgia does not belong) crossed behind him"

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

16. Nobody suspects the Spanish Inquisition!!!

His amazement that Russia would use force against a smaller neighbour was echoed by David Darchiashvili, head of the parliamentary European integration committee. “No one expected Russia would mobilise and invade,” he said

I think they must have Russia confused with some other country. These people are either idiots or they're lying. Probably both.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

17. despite the surge of anti-Russian reporting in the Western media

it's been difficult to hide the fact that Georgia attacked first and caused a big fuck-up for themselves.

It makes me wonder to what extent the US was party to the Georgian decision to send its military into South Ossetia and what the US thought would come from it.

[mikeytherat]

18. Mr. Batu Kutelia also admitted responsibility for the following sign:

"Understatement is what I do best" he added.

mikey_the_rat

[sushi]

21. Don't know much

about Georgia yet. Isn't South Ossetia part of Georgia, so why does the Georgian govenment invade it's own territory?
I don't see why there are so many tiny countries. It would be better if Georgia, Ossetia, Abkhazia are all part of Russia, imo.