we need to be very deliberate with our moves

Yes. There is the element of the irrational here. Russia feels slapped around. Ok, it’s true that Russia was slapping all these others around. But right now we’re headed for one heck of a mess. Bloomberg is reporting that:

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said “war has started” in the breakaway region of South Ossetia while Georgia accused Russia of “a well-planned invasion” and appealed to world leaders for help.

Russian “volunteers” are pouring over the border to help defend South Ossetia from Georgian forces, Putin told U.S. President George W. Bush in Beijing today, according to Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.