Saakashvili playing a risky game

I hadn't heard of Georgia's first move to take South Ossetia. I only heard the Russian response. [Link]

Georgia has dramatically upped the ante by mounting a large-scale military operation to recover the separatist enclave in South Ossetia. As expected, its now well-trained and well-equipped forces overran the Ossetian formations and took over their capital town, causing a massive loss of life. This spectacular Act I of the unfolding drama received only muted reaction in the international media.

Not so the following Act. President Saakashvili has succeeded in causing Russia to move in with heavy forces. Immediately, the nature of the conflict has been transformed. It is no longer about an obscure ethnic group tucked in somewhere in the Caucasus mountains. The image reverberating around the world is that of Russia's recidivist invasion against one of its tiny neighbors. Moscow stepped right into the trap Tbilisi had laid for it.

Almost inevitably, Act II leads to Act III, for which Saakashvili is already calling. The conflict is no longer about Russia and Georgia, he says, it is about American/Western values.

We need to stand for Democracy, but at the same time we need to make sure we are not being played as pawns in someone else's game.