I'm sorry, but Georgia is on its own.

Yep, and they should have had the sense to realize that instead of pressing their luck and going after S. Ossetia. The Russians were merely waiting for an excuse to act, and Shasha...what's his name, provided it in spades.

Of course, Russia has also shown that both the U.S. and EU are "paper tigers". Leave out all the happy face democratic bilge rhetoric and their promises of support don't amount to a hill of rotting beans.

Georgians would have been better off staying with Russia rather than launching a hubristic exercise in their own pseudo-independence.

And btw, y'all can forget about joining NATO/

The volunteer military is already stretched to its limits.

I'm sorry, but the cold hard fact is that no one is going to stop Putin and his Russian military. Russia has made it clear that it will respond to U.S., i.e., NATO, conventional weapons with tactical nuclear weapons. The United States is not going to risk that kind of military conflict for the sake of Georgia. Besides, our military is trapped in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can't help you, even if we wanted to. Our nation is bankrupt.

I'm sorry, but Georgia is on its own.

Judging the actions of Russia in the Republic of Georgia from all possible – political, historical, legislative, human – perspectives it is obvious that this immense country is in the process of completion of a well-organized military company aiming at the annihilation of its neighboring sovereign state. Russia, strengthened by petrodollars is trying to get back its imperial status and obviously the easiest and the cheapest way to accomplish this is through “assisting its own citizens” in small neighboring countries. One should not forget that well before the present campaign the Russian administration systematically provided South Ossetian separatists with the Russian passports to use this as pretext when time is right, such as NOW.

Not Georgians and Ossetians are trying to secede from Georgia: It is RUSSIANS in Ossetia (assisted with the Russian military machine) that are trying to grab land away from Georgia. Do NOT call them Ossetians. Call them Russians. Georgia is trying to protect those Georgians and Ossetians in South Ossetia who are not Russian Citizens. And leaving South Ossetia aside for the last two days the Russian military planes have being bombing towns outside the conflict zone and Georgian civilians are dying…

Georgia calls on NATO, UN and international community to STOP Russia!!!!!

Judging the actions of Russia in the Republic of Georgia from all possible – political, historical, legislative, human – perspectives it is obvious that this immense country is in the process of completion of a well-organized military company aiming at the annihilation of its neighboring sovereign state. Russia, strengthened by petrodollars is trying to get back its imperial status and obviously the easiest and the cheapest way to accomplish this is through “assisting its own citizens” in small neighboring countries. One should not forget that well before the present campaign the Russian administration systematically provided South Ossetian separatists with the Russian passports to use this as pretext when time is right, such as NOW.

Not Georgians and Ossetians are trying to secede from Georgia: It is RUSSIANS in Ossetia (assisted with the Russian military machine) that are trying to grab land away from Georgia. Do NOT call them Ossetians. Call them Russians. Georgia is trying to protect those Georgians and Ossetians in South Ossetia who are not Russian Citizens. And leaving South Ossetia aside for the last two days the Russian military planes have being bombing towns outside the conflict zone and Georgian civilians are dying…

Georgia calls on NATO, UN and international community to STOP Russia!!!!!

One of President BUSH's major 'failures' is that he professed to see into VLAD PUTIN's eyes and could see his soul!!! How many times did Pres. BUSH have to be reminded that:"...once KGB - always KGB" - despite his looking into VLAD'bring-back-imperial-Russia'PUTIN oh-so-trustworthy-eyes???!!!

I have read the credits of the writer of this article.... Not one independent idea, all from the magazine titled: USA - GOOD RUSSIA - BAD. How sad!

Indeed , do look into the history since 1992.

Again, Russia is the bad Guy, and the USA which never declare wars on anybody (?) - except for Granada naturally - should tell Russia to stop. Georgia is in Russia's backyard. Abkhazia is full of Russian nationals, South Ossetia is not here and not there, the Georgian enter South Ossetia with their armies - and Russia should just ignore it? Texas, new Mexico (parts of) used to be a part of Mexico, the Mexicans walk into Texas and New Mexico with their armies, and the USA will not make a move? Well,yes, it is a far fetched possibility, and a bit more than 16 years ago - but not that much more in the greater scheme of things....

A reminder: Putin is for Russia - anything strange about it?

As I have said earlier: the weak is not always right!

Russia is an energy giant. It supplies Europe with Gas and Oil. The West has established "safe" routes from the Caspian to Turkey through Georgia.

These oil and natural gas pipelines, ports, and tankers that can feed a million barrels a day to the world market. The next phase was to be a direct line to Europe.

Europe cannot afford to respond with anything but a pained smile when its arteries are being squeezed .

The U.S. has allowed the Saudis to promote the most extreme muslin orthodoxy for decades while remaining an energy dependency of Wahabi fanaticism.

Will Russia give citizenship in Russia to the third of Estonia that arrived and descended from the Russian take-over in the 1930's and then invade Estonia to protect them?

Agree with Harrison and other posters here. I'm wondering to what degree Europeans believe the obviously one-sided accounts being published. When this conflict began I had to read a lot of background in order to understand. At this point I'm convinced that control over a particular oil pipeline is the catalyst for this tragic sequence of events.