Since Georgia can not have failed to realise that Russia would oppose a
violent reintegration of the
secessionist territory, or that the possibility of winning a war with Russia was nil, Saakashvili's confidence that the invasion was still a realistic option could only have stemmed from a belief — resting on the perception of Georgia as an integral part of the Western alliance — that NATO would certainly back him, and the threat of them doing so would be enough to prevent Russia from retaliating.