Why now? WHile Bush is still President.

As someone noted above, if Putin had waited three months he’d either be facing peacenik Obama or a newly-elected McCain who might not want to go there in the first month of his Presidency.

Is Georgia one of those icy countries that shut down in November? Or does Putin want it firmly under control so that he can freeze out Europe come the blizzard season?

Frankly, while I’m willing to go to the mat for Georgia or Poland or any of those ex-USSR countries, I’d love to see Europe freeze for a long long time and do absolutely nothing about it.