Hidden Victories In Georgia
(Strategy Page)
Russian troops beat the Georgians on the ground, not so much because of superior numbers, but because the Russians had more troops with combat experience, and very recent experience in fighting this kind of war. The Russians got this way by fighting a successful campaign just across the border, in Chechnya. There, several hundred thousand Russians and pro-Russian Chechens have gotten valuable combat experience. The Chechen rebels (a mixture of nationalists, gangsters and Islamic radicals) have been reduced to a few hundred hard core fighters. The Russians basically use Chechnya as a training ground where their “contract soldiers” (volunteers, who are much more effective than conscripts) can get some combat experience. These volunteers are particularly common in paratrooper and commando units. Both were apparently used in the ground operations that pushed the Georgians out of South Ossetia, and conquered key areas elsewhere in Georgia. Some of the “Russian” troops were apparently Chechen paramilitary units.
The Georgian troops had received training and weapons from the U.S. and Israel over the last few years. But the U.S. training was mainly for peacekeeping operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This was of limited use against experienced Russian counter-terrorism troops. A small number of Georgians received special operations training, but not enough of these troops were available to defeat the Russian advance.
The Georgians did better in the air and at sea, even though they were greatly outnumbered there as well. Georgian warplanes shot up the Russians pretty badly (killing the commander of Russian ground forces, for example) before the Russians were able to shut down the Georgian air force. But in the process Russia lost at least four aircraft destroyed, and a number of others badly damaged.
At sea, Georgian missile boats hit several Russian warships, which had not been equipped with equipment, or crews, that were capable of dealing with this kind of threat. Two Russian warships were damaged sufficiently that they had to withdraw from the area. Within a few days, however, Georgia’s miniscule navy and air force were destroyed, largely by the much larger Russian air force.
The Russians ran a large scale Information War campaign, shutting down Georgian access to the Internet for several days, and blanketing the world media, and Internet, with Russian spin on what was going on in Georgia and why.
The Russians apparently wanted to intimidate the Georgians into electing a less pro-West government. There are some Georgians who are more inclined to do whatever the Russians want, but it’s unclear if this faction has a majority of the votes yet. Some Georgians believe that the Russians are still angry about Josef Stalin, a Georgian who killed more Russians than Adolf Hitler. Stalin is still a hero to Georgians.
Russia has now shown itself to be a bully. Russia has been trying to annex two parts of Georgia that border Russia, and this war was all about showing Georgians that Russia would rather fight than give up this land grab. The UN was created to deal with this sort of thing, but Russia is doing well, so far, intimidating the UN into inactivity.
It’s not a clear win for the Russians, but, short-term, many things appear to be going their way. Long term, things are rather more murky. Europeans have been reminded that the Russian bully they have feared and despised, for so many centuries, is back in town. That could have interesting consequences down the road.
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“…largely by the much larger Russian air force.”
The “much larger force” being the fact consistently ‘lost’ in reports. Did little Georgia EVER have a chance? The article seems to imply that had they had better training they might have.
And the Russians show no signs of ‘withdrawing’.
From a London Times article today….
“An American defence official said that Russia was actually sending more troops to South Ossetia and another pro-Russian enclave in Abkhazia.
August 18th, 2008 at 8:55 pm“We’re seeing them solidify their positions,” the official was quoted as saying…
There was little sign of redeployment from other major towns like Kaspi, Zugdidi and Senaki that have fallen under effective Russian occupation. Six Russian checkpoints blocked the route to the strategic town of Gori where Russian officers prevented journalists from entering to monitor the withdrawal…
Despite US pleas to Mr. Medvedev to keep his word after reneging on earlier promises to withdraw, there were further signs that Russia was preparing to bolster its forces in Georgia.
A battalion of Russia’s 76th Guards Airborne Division was moved from Pskov to Beslam, a few miles on the Russian side of the Georgian border.”
Stalin is still a hero to Georgians.
Did little Georgia EVER have a chance? though you were in the country training the army
I am afraid that the Russians won’t give up soon, they have this century opportunity to annoy the Americans, a weak Bush administration that has no will to get involved in another major conflict
August 19th, 2008 at 1:31 amThey didn’t leave much of Europe for 50 years, it’s their MO.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:42 amI noticed a huge up-swing of comments from Russian posters on international websites. All with the same party line quotes and arguments. Makes me wonderif they didn’t plan that as well….
August 19th, 2008 at 5:17 amMy guess is that they’ve been planning this a while. I mean what with the “sudden” upspring of Party Camps where they teach their children what they learned under Soviet Rule about “Western Imperialism” and how “America is Evil”, etc. Bull crap those were planned after the war started.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:28 amCan not wait to see Russians getting killed when the guerilla war starts. Look forward to the YNC videos. The inability of Russian to capture all of Georgia is a major humiliation.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:27 amYeah, it is just coincidental that the real Pravda along with it’s sister Pravda-lites, NBC/CBC/CNN/NYTimes/AP etc. all seemed to have the same line of anti-Georgian BS.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:56 amfranchie,
August 19th, 2008 at 7:22 amwhat chance DID we have 1-on-1 with russians, thats why we yelled about their plans for months prior to this… their retired generals r furious of the clumsy advance of the russian army, the damage we inflicted on them and our remaining armed forces still pose a concern to the russians - why it wasnt destroyed in those few days they ask..only if you could read their news papers, in a way they expected us to run away from the battlefield as soon as we saw a tank with a russian flag on it..we proved them wrong, and now they run around the country in desperation inflicting damage on soft targets, damaging the infrastructure, fucking with the civilians, hampering the economy, and the looting off-course. the russians might have planned invasion OK, but they underestimated the initial resistance, they planned to enter Tbilisi in 1-2 days…and they DO NOT have support from the population, major blunder - if you want to occupy somebody the population has to be on your side, otherwise the occupier controls only immediate surrounding area where he stands. the hearts and minds thing was disregarded - after all Putin is a KGB … we basically bitch-slapped russian army (well we got beaten up, but not beaten down to submission - big difference) and they are pissed…
And I want to say again - US WOULD NOT START THE 3rd WORLD WAR because of Georgia, and thats why we didnt ask for external military help from others ( NATO isnt ready anyways - look how much trouble US had to go through to get NATO troops in A’stan) Contrary to the russian reports of Ukrainian mercs in our regiments, there were none, we asked them not to come, we didnt want to stirr up some trouble for the Ukrainian people. But my point is that russians might have won the battle but they lost a war for Georgia. Eventually they WILL have to leave the territory…and i think it will happen soon (2-3 months maximum)
Giorgi, I said, if you are a christian, then pray
August 19th, 2008 at 10:34 am