I'll believe Russia ended it when somebody other than Russia says they did.  They've been lying about how far their military is since they started.

the fact that it's pretty much the same situation as Chechnya, other than that there is no big country that puts Russia in it's place over that

It keeps coming back to the same argument. Regardless of whether or not Russia had some grand elaborate plan laid out to take action against Georgia, current reports still indicate that Georgia made the decision first to send troops in and siege the South Ossetian capital.

I too believe that the reported decision to stop is based on international reaction, but I also bet that the moment the first Georgian soldier marched into South Ossetia the Russians ran a cost benefit-analysis on the maximum amount of time and destruction to hurt Georgia before international relations became too damaged. I also bet that that calculation came to under a week of war time.

I still find it interesting the coincidence of timing with the Olympics, where one could argue that the Russians could benefit from the diversion in media attention. But at the same time Putin was out of the country at the time, and he is a bit of a micro manager, so perhaps it was intentional on the part of the Georgians? Best of all for the Georgian is that you have two hotheads like Bush and Putin talking face to face, using the personality conflict to put the USA even more strongly on the side of Georgia. (and yes I am well aware that Putin in not the president any more, but they did sent a Prime Minister to an event where the President would have been more suitable)

"No I don't.  I have personal memory of the period 1974-1989, when we had a wanker who looked sideways when Leoni stomped the Afghans, and then Reagan started helping Afghans kill Commies, ordered a 600-ship navy, prompted the largest protest marches in European history by sowing intermediate range nukes on NATO soil, called them the Evil Empire, and demanded tehy give up their European empire."

And helped a regime to the power of wich the americans came to know that it wasn't the best to have and then invaded the country themselves

"No, saddam hacked his own way to power, we just helped his Arabs to spank the Persians"

I was talking about the Taliban; Saddam's Iraq. It's hard to keep track of the different leaders of countries once you invade so many of them, no?

http://www.economichitman.com/

Confessions of an economic hitman

this is a must read - it is an eyes opener for uninitiated

"oh yeah, that doesn't sound cowardly at all! "there you go, lads. you have rifles now. go and shoot something. i'll be standing over here."

Funny, when Hitler did that for you Finns, the letter calling him a big fat coward got lost in the mail.

Fokker - have you ever been to Georgia and talked to ordinary people there and asked what they really want ?

I have been there and can tell you that people hate Saakashvili because of many things and they dont give a damn about NATO though they want EU to help them
even in Tbilisi - the capital city of the state they get electricity 2-3 hours per day, those more rich have power generators and chain them so noone can steal them

making business in georgia means giving away your business to the corrupted government officials as soon as they notice your business is succesful - they come to you and simply ask to give 10% of your business, the next time another 10% and so on until they control 90% and you have no profit whatsoever...

sorry to say pvp that view seems to be the minority of America.

1/3 of US population was born since 1980, the remnant alive during Hitler's bloodless conquests is mainly invalids
I've had college grads in their 20s ask me to explain what this "Sudentenland" means anyhow

I argue with older and mainly Americans on other sites and even many of those who think Russia was wrong say there's nothing we can do, we don't dare fight Russia ever.  They're too strong and we're too weak, we need ther investment and their gas keeps prices down.  Our economy won't sustain a war with russia and we can't put enough troops over there.  Blah there goes NATO

"A country with a democratic government and army doesn't need *peacekeapig* forces in it's land."

Really? Then why is this so called democratic country bombing itself?

I do actually find it amusing that a government would decide to bomb itself, and then loose...

Either you havnt understood what went on, or are completely ignorant to the fact.

Irrelevant now though, Russia and Georgia has a truce. The majority of the Russian forces will return to Russia, and the rest of the world will send peace keeping forces to the two questioned provinces. Russia doesnt incur any occupation costs, still has a chance of getting more land, destroyed Georgias army, struck fear into the West, and got to test out some of its militarys capabilities.

Smart people, if you ask me. The fact that Georgia initiated the whole thing only adds humour to the situation.