Consider that Georgia has done a decent job of fighting off the Russians. They can be proud of what they accomplished with a small force. In the air and at sea, they bloodied the bear that charged them:
Georgian warplanes shot up the Russians pretty badly (killing the commander of Russian ground forces, for example) before the Russians were able to shut down the Georgian air force. But in the process Russia lost at least four aircraft destroyed, and a number of others badly damaged.
At sea, Georgian missile boats hit several Russian warships, which had not been equipped with equipment, or crews, that were capable of dealing with this kind of threat. Two Russian warships were damaged sufficiently that they had to withdraw from the area. Within a few days, however, Georgia's miniscule navy and air force were destroyed, largely by the much larger Russian air force.
But on land, even though the Georgians inflicted some serious losses on the Russian invaders, the Russians smashed up the defenders. Why?
The Georgian troops had received training and weapons from the U.S. and Israel over the last few years. But the U.S. training was mainly for peacekeeping operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This was of limited use against experienced Russian counter-terrorism troops. A small number of Georgians received special operations training, but not enough of these troops were available to defeat the Russian advance.
Believing the Russians would never attack them, the Georgians prepared for peacekeeping missions.
When the Russians invaded, the Georgian air force and navy--untainted by peacekeeping theories--did their job. The Georgian peacekeeping army failed to bloody up the Russians enough to stop them and send them back across the border.
Remember this lesson when military reformers tell you that our Army will never have to face conventional enemies again, and that we should focus on counter-insurgency and stability operations.
Train like we'll need to defeat a tough conventional foe and we won't face a similar setback. Remember, we don't have a superpower friend to save us when our defenses fail.
