No matter what quality edge the Georgians might have…I think the best case outcome for them has to be something like Finland in 1940.

Even “winning” in the sense of kicking the kaka out of what the Russian has so far deployed may actually be counterproductive, in that the Putin regime cannot afford a humiliation, and will simply eat its losses, and move up whatever forces may be needed to overwhelm the Georgians. The Georgians would be well advised to try to disengage, to hide in fortified and mountainous terrain that the Russians will have to pay to take, and reconcile itself to the Ossetians seceding. Probably they will have to abandon the American alliance.

The Russians are not the Americans, public opinion won’t work on them, and the Georgians are not going to be let off the ropes by diplomatic pressure unless Putin wants to allow it.