Thunder Run and Battle for Grozny

firefox007 said:

That war was fought with masses of poorly-trained conscripts who were promised by Putin they would not be sent to a war zone. They were not ready to fight, were not properly equipped, and did not fare well in the fighting. Russian soldiers are often not paid on time, or not paid for months, endure savage beatings at the hands of the older soldiers, suffer greatly from alcoholism and health neglect. That the Russian Army can attack and eventually wear down the tiny Georgian army, is no proof of their fighting abilities. Their Army is in the sorriest shape it has ever been in; conscription is widely hated & avoided, or bribed out of.

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That's the most ridiculous spin I've ever read.

Casualties and losses

Georgia:
Military[24][25]
162 killed, 947 wounded, 8 missing, 42 captured[26][27]
Police[25]
11 killed, 3 missing, 227 wounded

Russia:
64 killed, 283 wounded, 3 missing, 12 captured[28][29]

South Ossetia:
about 150 killed[30][20] (including volunteers), unknown number of wounded, 41 captured[26]

Abkhazia:
1 killed, 2 wounded[31]

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And in case you're going to claim that Russia outnumbered Georgia, both had about 10k soldiers in South Ossetia. And if you consider a 1:3 casualty ratio to be "did not fare well in the fighting", I'd hate to see the Russians when they do fare well.

firefox007 said:

That the Russian Army can attack and eventually wear down the tiny Georgian army, is no proof of their fighting abilities.

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What the hell are you talking about? There was no 'eventually wear down', the Russians went in and utterly crushed the US trained and equipped Georgian army in a matter of hours. It was a massive route after that, with the Georgians falling back in disarray, and the only reason the Russian Army stopped it's advance was because Putin told them to stop.

If Putin had not been feeling so charitable, there would be no state of Georgia today.

I recall watching a TV special on US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The US soliders being interviewed said when they were moving through parts of the city, the Iraqi forces would pepper them with small arms fire and inaccurate RPG rounds. The Iraqi forces knew the M2 Bradly was vulnerable to RPG's. However, as soon as the M1 Abrams rolled up, the Iraqi fire would cease since they knew they couldn't penetrate the heavy MBT's armor.

For the Record Other the majority of Georgian arms were not American but rather former Warsaw Pact. The Lead Georgian tank was the T72 Apc's were BMP, BTR, and Otokar Cobra[Turkish up-armored Hummers]The Georgian Air force was using Surplus Russian jets and helicopters Georgian Infantry although Trained by the US on the M4, they tended too toss them for Ak74 and Ak47 due too logistical concerns. In-terms of raw force for Force, the Gear was equal the numbers were on Russia's side. for Example the Georgians had 80 T72's the Russians had 86 T72B another 30 T72BM, 29 T62 and even a handful of T55s and that's just MBT's. Trained yes equipped Hardly.