Why are people claiming Georgia and Russia are NOT at war when they really are?

Question

Seriously,people are saying this is a proxy war.This ain't no proxy war.Look at any recent news.Read a newspaper,watch tv.Georgian troops just very recently shot down 4 russian aircraft making a total of 10 shot down..Russia also very recently bombed a georgian village and military base.Georgian and Russian troops are fighting it out in Tskhinvali as we speak.In fact Georgian troops just destroyed a tank column recently too.And yet through all this people and reporters are saying "this might escalate into a wider war"(YA THINK!).Where is the logic here?Are people naturally this stupid or are news reporters just naturally stupid?Opinions are thanked in advance.

Answer 1

the US is trying to have a military base next to Russia , how did the US feel when Russia sent missiles to cuba

Answer 2

The US supports Georgia and the Russians have bombed it and killed civilians. The US might be obliged to support Georgia against Russia. In which case we might have a nuclear war.

Alternatively the US attacked Iraq while the Russians protested but did nothing.

So maybe the US might protest but not do anything.

Answer 3

I studied Russian over 20 years ago and there was strife in that region even then.  Georgia was forced to join the Soviet Union in 1921 and it resented that.  Many of its people were Muslim and resented an aetheist government.  When oil was discovered there in the 1930s things only got worse.

One of the Soviet Union's meanest dictators came from Georgia.

There is so much untapped oil and other natural resources in the Caucus but the problem is the regional instability.  No oil company wants to drill or build a pipeline there that they know will be sabotaged (ref Nigeria).

But besides the oil, the many battling ethnic groups in that small region make peaceful negotiations difficult.  

This conflict is not going to end tomorrow.  According to the Russian Daily Online news, the Russian Navy in the Black Sea is ready to blockade Georgia's ports.  

Iran and Turkey have a stake in this conflict, too; many of the battling groups are Turkmen.

Answer 4

It looks a lot like a war to me.  However it is a limited war, as opposed to total war when one side is looking to annihilate the other side.  The Russians just seem to be taking advantage of the fact that two regions in Georgia want to come back to Russia, so they are forcefully occupying it.  They're probably invading for other reasons too, like to oppose further NATO encirclement of military bases around Russia since Georgia was about to join NATO.