Professor Charles King on Russia/Georgia

"Over the last several years, Georgia has become increasingly convinced that it's a real partner of the United States, that the US would defend Georgia - practically regardless of what Georgia did - that Georgia was simply reasserting control over bits of territory that are still internationally recognized as Georgia's own.

And so I think the Georgians' political elite, particularly the president and the people very close to him, probably convinced themselves of two things. One, that they could do this quickly and successfully, that is, re-take South Ossetia, and secondly, that if there were a Russian response - and there are very technical and geographic reasons for why the Georgians might have believed it would be difficult for the Russians to respond militarily, if they had taken South Ossetia's major road links very quickly - but if there were a Russian response, that the United States would somehow step in to defend them, and in fact both of those calculations have turned out to be wrong..."