Despite that from the very first day all US media was covering it as if Russia started the war. Effectively, the US media was spreading propaganda. Why?
I think the answer is in Propaganda Model by Chomsky: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model
Georgia was indeed dumb enough to let themselves get provoked to fire the first rounds. It's very strange though that the peace loving defensive-only Russian forces ended up permanently occupying even more Georgian territory than before the war. That's the Russian history, Russia never attacks, it only defends itself, by advancing and annexing enemy territory.
> The report found no evidence to support Russian allegations that Georgia was carrying out genocide against the South Ossetian population.
> But it said there were "serious indications" of ethnic cleaning against ethnic Georgians in South Ossetia and found Russian forces "would not or could not" stop atrocities by armed groups in areas they controlled.