According to Ossetian blogger, narod, 400 out of 500 Georgian tanks were destroyed. And not just by Russians.

Who’d a thunk it?

For the last five years, Georgia has been trained and equipped, no expense spared, by US and Israeli specialists. Georgia’s annual defense budget is put at around 950 million. South Ossetia - the real winner - doesn’t even have a budget. It barely has running water.

Israel supplies Georgia with all kinds of scary techno toys, including tactical missile systems, anti-aircraft systems, automatic turrets for armored vehicles, electronic equipment and remotely piloted aircraft.

So the UK ‘Times’ headline today, ‘Georgian Forces Cut and Run‘, won’t sit well with Georgia’s sponsors. Even though the story is largely nonsense. Oh, and by the way, the ‘Times’ doesn’t put its most idiotic leaders on the net, where they might be easily rubbished and dissected, although the headline I quote is front page on UK newstands.

But ignore the ranting media for a moment, and look for confirmed eye-witness reports. South Ossetia was defended against the might of Georgia’s new military by a largely volunteer force. North Ossetians and various freelance bandits from the Caucasus arrived long before Russia’s 58th Army. The media pitches Georgia against Russia as a David and Goliath battle. In fact, the opposite is true. As in Iraq and Afghanistan, a few slit-throaty peasants won the battle on the ground.

Live Journal blogger from South Ossetia, naroda, reports how local citizens defended themselves against the Georgian offensive of August 7th - 8th. The only Western correspondents known to have visited Tskhinvali didn’t see a Russian anywhere, only separatist guerrillas.

The media makes much of Saakashvili’s reckless political gamble. But his military gamble is probably more unforgiveable. He’s made NATO look bad.

The first mistake was to attack Tskhinvali before blowing the Roki tunnel, Russia’s only easy conduit to South Ossetia. Sealing that tunnel could have been done by stealth, with a handful of saboteurs and Russian response would have been stymied. But instead of doing the obvious, Saakashvili’s force wasted 15 hours shelling nondescript Ossetian villages.

Even better, Saakashvili could have waited for bad weather prior to attack. Then even routes over the top of the Caucasus would have been closed. Except for air attacks, no Russian response possible.

Sean writes a good piece today about ‘Regime Change - Russian Style‘. Yes, the Russians would like to see the back of Saakashvili. But by now, so would a few other people. Embarrassing NATO in this way wasn’t the brightest idea.

Personally, I doubt whether Regime Change was a prime Russian objective. The US probably will dump Saakashvili. He’s obviously not as sharp as his suits. But they’ll only find a brighter replacement, as they did with Timoshenko in the Ukraine.