…to really bang home that the concept of the modern nation-state SUCKS.

Part of Georgia (the eastern European country, not the southern state) doesn’t want to be part of Georgia.  They want to either become independent or merge with a related region that’s politically part of Russia.  The (political leadership of the) rest of Georgia doesn’t like this, so they sent troops to peacefully argue their case crack down on the separatists.  Russia didn’t like THAT, so they sent in troops.  Predictably, the result is a heap o’ death.

Why do they do this?  Simple: because the State by its nature can’t accept division.  The just thing to do when someone doesn’t want to be part of your particular group is to not require them to be, but if a government does this then in the long run it concedes the argument against their legitimacy.  The political leadership of Georgia thinks that if that group splits then everyone’s going to want to do it.  I doubt their particular reasons for separation make any sense, but in principle it’s not up to anyone else.  If they don’t want to stay, then let ‘em go, fuck it.

Considering the obscurity of the region of the world where this is happening, and the numerous hard to pronounce names involved, this would actually be amusing if only it didn’t involve loss of innocent lives.  Like a nightmare Monty Python skit.