Georgia conflict: Screams of the injured rise from residential streets - Telegraph

I don't know what "tacit support" means, but if Saakashvilli said, "We're going to assault Ossetia" and someone in the Bush department replied, "OK, you know the score"... If that really happened, then our State Department is even more inept and criminally incompetent than I'd thought... And I've thought pretty poorly of it.

Georgia conflict: Screams of the injured rise from residential streets - Telegraph: Mr Saakashvilli may also have banked on support from his closest ally, US president George W Bush, whose administration is said to have given tacit support for a Georgian assault on South Ossetia in the believe that the territory could be recaptured within 48 hours.

This article in the Telegraph is one of the better that I've seen. It correctly conveys the importance of Ossetia (not at all important, no one wants it, a mountainous, land-locked den of thieves and instability) and Abkhazia (much more important as a port and wealthier). It also correctly points out that NATO will be all the more willing to accept Georgia into the alliance if 1) there are no further territorial disputes between Russia and Georgia; 2) Russia proves itself to be resurgent, aggressive and imperialistic.

I don't see how anyone comes out of this a winner.