A little more than a year ago, Russia and Georgia were at war over Georgia's small autonomous republic of South Ossetia. We now have two authoritative reports — one from late 2008 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE ) and the other just released by the European Union — which agree that the war was launched by Georgia, not Russia. Georgian troops suddenly attacked Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, on the night of Aug. 7-8, 2008, and Russia then retaliated with force.
Yet at the time of the conflict, U.S. and British officials and media were almost unanimous in condemning Moscow. According to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, "Russian aggression must not go unanswered."
The Washington Post called on the United States and NATO to "impose a price on Russia." In the same paper, the politically connected American commentator Robert Kagan said Russia's actions in Georgia resembled the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938.