However, unlike Rockwell, I don't think you or I are at all interested in producing something that might, at some point, end up a sound bite.

Zing! I hadn’t considered that interpretation, but it does explain a lot. Yes, the mainstream media have time and again shown the usefulness of the sound bite as incisive commentary.

One especially murky detail is; who fired/moved over a border first?

Given the extremely long history of tribal fighting in this region, I don’t think such a determination can be made—each side is likely to point to the other and run history backwards in their attempt to show the other was the aggressor.

My rant shouldn’t be taken to mean I support the Georgian gov, by the way. I know little about their politicrats, but it was striking to me how many of our students—and the think tank execs who hosted and set up the camp—do not like Saakashvili, seeing him as more of a pro-West thug than the people were used to. The perspective seemed to be that he was just another in a long line of promise breakers and failed reformers. (I don’t think any of the camp participants were anarchists before the camp; and I seriously doubt any were persuaded to hoist the black flag after we left. The conflation of cultural pride and nationalism runs very deep there—no doubt aided by the omnipresent threat of The Bear.) I did look over the Raimondo commentary, but I find him hard to read; and again, one can find sources to support either side as the bad guy in this case. The Russian gov starting giving South Ossetians Russian passports; then, when Georgia’s gov took umbrage at that, Russia hurried to defend “her citizens”. Nice trick.

I will say this, though: there is certainly an element of pugnaciousness in the Georgian psyche. Nearly every student I spoke with privately inquired about how much I, or others in the USSA, know of the area and its history; and they were all obviously disappointed when I honestly replied that few give it much attention. One might be tempted to justify that ignorance, since there are many small countries whose citizens think it is of vital importance; but I think the Georgians have something of a point. The term “caucasian” has its roots in the region; and today, moving oil from producers to consumers is a vital concern—and my understanding is the Black Sea is an important piece of that puzzle in that area.

I’m rambling again ... my primary point remains that attaching nationalistic labels on what’s going on masks the genuine pain and confusion of the individuals bearing the brunt of this re-enactment of David and Goliath battling. Much of rural Georgian life can barely be called a subsistence lifestyle—we saw exactly one modern tractor working a field, and many being worked by an animal pulling a single-blade plow, in our travels across the country and back. Yard after yard, in nicer homes and shacks alike, were devoted to crops—not out of desire to garden, but the necessity. Government regulations after the Soviets were kicked out—some told me they were encouraged by some multinational do-gooder group, like the UN or World Bank—have made agri-entrepreneurship especially difficult. And Tbilisi isn’t exactly rich, either. The people already had it rough enough; I doubt that the prospect of going down in history as the conflagration that formally marked the start of WWIII cheers them.