By Tiny Events the World Turns

Because of the French Fleet and unfavorable winds, Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. Thereby creating a new country called the United States of America.

Because Princips is walking home when the Archduke Ferdinand's car gets stuck right in front of him, he has another chance to assassinate the Archduke. He takes the chance and Europe becomes an abattoir sacrificing millions of innocents to Ares.

Wade McClusky presses on even as his gas gauge drops to empty. His diligence is rewarded when far below he spies an enemy destroyer racing. McClusky takes the bearing of the tin-can and aims his Dauntless to find out what the ship is racing to meet. At the end of the search is the Japanese First Air Fleet. By the time McClusky leaves, two of the four carriers are burning due to his efforts. And by June 6, the battle is an American victory.

I don't know if the action at Kurta Bridge will rank with the above events, it all depends upon how the war in Georgia plays out. If the cease-fire breaks down and the flames of war erupt to consume more than Georgia, it just may.

What is Kurta Bridge? It is a bridge over a steep valley with a river at the bottom just north of the chief city of South Ossetia: Tskhinvali.

What seems to have started the avalanche in the Caucus Mountains is not a bridge in a picturesque valley but a flat tire or two. If this article is to be believed that is, historians won't know more of the facts for awhile yet. The Georgians were meeting again with the Russians and South Ossetians to discuss how to settle the matter of the restive province. But the Russian diplomat ran late. They called the South Ossetians and found out they had turned their cellphone off. So next they called the tardy Russian diplomat who claimed his car had a flat and so did the back-up vehicle. For the Georgians alarm bells start to ring that this meeting was a trap.

Here is where things started to spiral towards open conflict. Georgians claim that US provided satellite images showed Russian forces already on the move south through the Roki Tunnel. So the Georgian military planned an ambush for the Russian invasion force at Kurta. This bridge was the choke point that could derail the attack before it could fully start. Alas, it was not to be as Russian forces clattered onto Kurta by 6am, thereby proving to the Georgians the premeditation of the attack. In their attempt to destroy the bridge [shades of Force 10 from Navarone] the Georgians only partially succeeded in damaging the bridge and destroying a dozen vehicles. The Russians regrouped and repulsed the Georgian forces. After that the war was on.

So by little things like a flat tire or two plus well placed paranoia, the Caucuses are running red with blood now.

--Editor note: Corrected the formatting issues plus rewrote some sentences to make things hopefully clearer. Plus added a YouTube link for the Force 10 from Navarone trailer.