I wonder if that is how this little dust up will be characterised in a few years. Maybe yes, maybe no.
I know there was a conflict between these 2 countries; I know roughly what the conflict was about; I know which of the two fired the first shots; I know an approximation of the numbers killed on the Russian and breakaway provinces side; I know the West has it's shorts in a truly lovely Gordian knot and it's wedged somewhere; I know everyone and his/her dog has an opinion on the consequences; I know the crazy right, left and middle in the US want to lock & load again; I know everyone and her/his dog is blogging very interesting analytical pieces on "what it all means".
What I don't know is where the two individual armies maybe? Did the Russians get to Soso's birthplace? Are they there now? Do they plan on staying?
What a funny little strange war. Rumours, rumours, rumours and really no actual information. This is annoying to a picky person like me. I wonder if I'll have to wait for the learned war papers to be published to understand exactly how the armies might or might not have been moving around in Georgia. Or was this whole thing just another boring air-war?
I was hoping late last night that there might be some actual information coming through one of the 700 or so channels I get on cable. Not really. But there was this, and I keep watching it over and over again, very interesting interview done by Nik Gowing of BBC, with president Saakashvili. I think the president's comic briefing of Nik is indicative of the fact that there was really no information about what was really going on during the 4 day conflict. Just rumours.