That Georgian Troops cannot "invade" their own territory.
Nah. This excuse doesn't fly to anyone who actually knows something about the region. South Ossetia may be in Georgian territory on your UN map, but in reality it has
never been ruled from Georgia since the CCCP collapsed. Again, you confuse lines on a piece of paper for real life. Democrats and Republicans may get up on their podiums and bitch about how the Georgians were unfairly treated. Yet, the reality is that South Ossetia never wanted to be a part of Georgia, and in reality they never have been. That relationship only exists in the UN, EU, and US. In South Ossetia, the Ossetic people run the country.
That Putin stands to gain a lot very directly , but he points at a potential gain that is rediculously speculative and distant.
Gain what? South Ossetia is not known for their vast wealth of resources.
It seems unlikely that he is telling anything like the truth , as how can he avoid the duty of an accuser , of proveing what he says?
And what does this country have? Moral authority against invading another nation?!? HAHAHA I think that ship has sailed. Even if we accept, for argument's sake, that Georgia has a fair claim on South Ossetia, I still do not see where the United States can step in and tell the Russians they are wrong. Not only did we invade Iraq under what turned out to be wafer-thin, flimsy, joke-of-the-world evidence - we've also invaded our neighbors quite literally HUNDREDS of times. And we support other nations (ahem...Israel) that freely invades her neighbors at will.
Do I automatically believe Putin? No, of course not. Do I believe we're capable of what he claims? Absolutely. Considering what we've done in the past - it wouldn't even register in our top 10 worst offenses.