Spiking the Georgian narative

By Fester:

Via TPM:

Erosi Kitsmarishvili, Georgia's former ambassador to Russia, told the parliamentary commission he had received information "from high-ranking Georgian officials" that Tbilisi was preparing to "militarily storm" the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

"Russia was ready for this war, but the Georgian leadership started the military action first," he said.

Whoops, that spikes the little old innocent Georgia routine that has been playing out in multiple locations.  It looks more and more likely that the Georgians thought they had at least operational surprise on the Russians and thought they could get to good blocking positions along with international support before the Russians could mobilize a response.  They guessed wrong.

We at the Newshoggers were skeptical of the initial report for a couple of reasons.  First, the first statements out of a warzone are often made with a strategic communication/propaganda intent.  Secondly, they just did not make a whole lot of sense.  As the second draft of history is being written, it looks like that skepticism was warranted. 

Comments

[Earl]

Oh, c'mon..You were skeptical of the initial report as soon as McCain said "We are all Georgians now..."

Wait....that was me. The only way it really made sense, I guess...

[smintheus]

It seemed reasonably clear right at the outset that Georgia had begun the war. I took a certain amount of flak for saying so, but that's where the evidence pointed. The rapidly evolving revisionism also pointed back toward Saakashvili as the prime mover.

And then there was this interview from the day before the war began. I learned about it only a few days later, at which time it pretty much clinched the case as far as I was concerned.

http://pulitzercenter.typepad.com/untold_stories/2008/08/georgias-presid.html