You write this:

Saakashvili’s irresponsible and disastrous offensive to retake South Ossetia has provoked a predictably heavy-handed Russian retaliation.

Could you imagine writing the sentence this way?

Putin’s irresponsible and disastrous offensive to retake Chechn’ya has provoked a predictably heavy-handed Turkish retaliation.

I didn’t think so. I liked the anecdote about the coach and the adoption of the children from Ukraine. I don’t like the idea of waking a Russian bear out of its slumber, but I am not that sure the Russian bear had been sleeping in this case.

be fully explained by this:

Saakashvili’s irresponsible and disastrous offensive to retake South Ossetia has provoked a predictably heavy-handed Russian retaliation.

You are at least responsible to explain the causes and ramifications of the said conflict since you have named your diary as “no heroes or clean hands in S Ossetia”. Georgia’s offensive has deeper internal reasons that your diary seems to shun.

You know that Georgia is our major ally in Iraq War. We should start educating the people on this issue, especially if our leaders, particularly McCain, are considering to make specific efforts in assisting Georgia on this conflict.

“This weekend’s rapidly escalating fighting in the former Soviet republic of Georgia is absolutely appalling.”

We agree on something, just not a lot.

“Saakashvili’s irresponsible and disastrous offensive to retake South Ossetia has provoked a predictably heavy-handed Russian retaliation.”

Offensive? When is it offensive to establish law and order within a nation. Georgia is a democracy. People in Georgia vote for their leaders. They have courts, rule of law, etc. There have been rocket attacks and other activities (one of the few places in the world in 2008 where terrorism does not mean Islamic terrorism). Georgia is a country striving hard to conduct itself like the US. To take on a moral equivalence tone in this context is an error if you value Western-style rights.

“Both sides seem to be indiscriminately shelling and bombing civilian areas”

NOT TRUE. This is the kind of propaganda people put out about US forces in Iraq. By the way, the Georgian air force is hardly capable of bombing anything.

“for (apparently) no greater cause than ethnocentric identity.”

Actually, the Ossetians are not ethnically Russian. The Russian strategy of doling out citizenship to the Ossetians is part of an effort to undermine the democratic government of Georgia.

“Things weren’t looking good for the next US president’s foreign policy, anyway, with Obama advised by Brzezinski and McCain advised by Scheunemann, we were already looking at needless antagonism of Russia, which would set back future energy supply farther than new domestic drilling could ever make up for, among other important considerations.”

True, but giving in now will make us worse off in the long term. If Russia is allowed to control the pipeline, then they will use that control in the future. Letting them have it so that we don’t antagonize them is folly.

“Now Russia’s hand has been forced”

Forced? They just want control over the pipeline and to otherwise dominate their neighbors. The Russian government barely cares about Russians. Why do you believe they care a lick about Ossetians except as a tool to bring Georgia to its knees.

“and the whole thing is just a sorry spectacle for all.”

So what the absorption of Georgia into the USSR—doesn’t mean we shouldn’t aid Georgia in any way that we can.

We are trying to bring Western style governments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and the fit is a difficult one.

Georgia is actively trying to become like the U.S. If we let them die, if we let democracy die in a country where people from the ground up are trying to build something truly Western, then we will have betrayed all of the principles that this country stands for, and others will learn from this example.