The George Washington Manuever

Here is one to ponder:

The Georgian Army seemed to lose cohesion and break contact before the city of Gori, but it also never lost the ability to sortie air assets, and there were no significant captures of Georgian Army formations in the lowlands... if at all (the fight at Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia is still playing out).

Now some excellent observers have reported that it is likely by the time of Monday the 11th local time, the Russians had degraded the Georgian military communications system to the point of failure... if that was the real communications network.

Hm.

There is an interesting precedent, to pick one example from history's full satchel of such moments, where the survival of the Army was far more important than the defense of the vulnerable territory even to the point of conceding the major cities and the capital (for a time).

The retreat from New York. 1776.

The massive operational defeat at Brooklyn was only salvaged by the miraculous withdrawal across the East River...

The overwhelming power of the invader continued to turn defenses (the passage of British Navy vessels into the Hudson above Manhattan), and prepared defenses were either abandoned or near-useless. See a place called Fort Washington then (the Washington Heights of Manhattan today)...

Yet another radical and less-than-parade-ground-organized withdrawal was then made to the Jersey side at the last point secure up the Hudson...

The race was then on across Northern New Jersey, the pursuer unimpeded...

At Brunswick, 'Lord' Stirling and his 1,000 did not exactly "come back from Iraq on USAF C-17's", but re-unite with the main Continental Army they did...

And by December, George Washington and the Continental Army had made it across the Delaware River...

...with enough sting left for the Cause-salvaging Victories at Trenton and Princeton.

Hmmm.

I've got a feeling about something here. Credit where credit is due, the implications are better said by Richard Fernandez ("Wretchard") over at Belmont Club:

wretchard:


Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney, USAF (Ret.) was just on Fox News calling for a NATO No-Fly zone over Georgia.

That would make Russia effectively the loser of the war. May it should be proposed just to get it on the table. That would set Putin’s gizzards churning.


Aug 12, 2008 - 7:30 am

Now why would anyone think that NATO would have the capability to even put such out there, diplomatically speaking...?

Hmmmm.

The American Advisers are staying with the Georgians...

Official U.S. Announcement

I've got rumors of 50+ Russian armored vehicles destroyed by ... a weapon not in the Georgian Army arsenal.

I've got a clear sign that the Russians woke up this morning to a severe reconsideration of their strategic objectives.

If, and I do say *IF*, the Georgians and U.S/NATO forces HAVE caused this reconsideration, well folks, it might just metaphorically be the days after Christmas, 1776 all over again.