For the last two years, Israelis have been providing military training for the Georgian Army. The trainers were mostly retired or reservist Israeli soldiers, hired by Israeli training firms to provide the instruction. The Georgians wanted to learn how the Israelis conducted reconnaissance, urban warfare and counter-terrorism operations. Apparently the Georgians were preparing several battalions of troops to re-occupy the separatist region of South Ossetia, and deal with any armed resistance on the part of the 50,000 Ossetians living there.
The Georgians have had a close call. Regaining their separatist regions in the face of local opposition and Russian military power was a pipe dream. Sure, Georgia doesn't have to ratify the loss so that one day they might get the regions back (much as we never agreed that the Baltic States were Soviet and now they are NATO members), but acting like they had a chance to reconquer them was foolish. And that foolishness nearly destroyed Georgia.
Georgia needs to focus on defeating another Russian armored spearhead. And knowing that the Russians can probably only afford a division or two of decent troops gives the Georgians a mission they can achieve--if they train for the right mission.
