"I'm still not following why Georgia would initiate something like this."
They didn't. It happened exactly as Russia planned.
August 2nd:
www.alertnet.org
"It said shooting came from three ethnic Georgian villages, but Georgia blamed the separatists for provoking the clashes.
The commander of Georgia's peacekeeping force in the region, Mamuka Kurashvili, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying South Ossetian peacekeepers shot at a Georgian village and suspected Russian peacekeepers of taking part.
Georgian peacekeepers and police officers returned fire and repelled the attack, he said.
Georgia's Interior Ministry said nine civilians in the Georgian villages in South Ossetia were injured, while Tskhinvali said up to 15 were injured on its side, up from seven reported on Friday. Kokoity put the number of injured at 13.
"This is another attempt by the separatist side to involve Georgia in a military conflict," Georgia's state minister in charge of re-integration, Temur Iakobashvili, told reporters in Tbilisi before leaving to visit the shootout area.
"The Georgian side was forced to return fire," he added."