One United Nations diplomat joked… that “if someone went to the Russians and said, ‘OK, Kosovo for Iran,’ we’d have a deal.”

Replace Kosovo with Georgia and update the inference.

As has been discussed, the Russian’s action had to have been in plan for some time and waiting. This could have been tailored anticipating our response to the Iranian threat, and be a way of getting something in exchange for what they stand to lose (in prestige and influence) from a long-anticipated attack on the mullah’s nuclear program that may or may not be imminent. (I would guess action to be implemented after the election, before the end of Bush’s term–especially in the event of an Obama win.)

Maybe Putin figures our plate is too full to effect a meaningful response.

I hope, and so am inclined to agree with the opinion of some others here, that this incursion may wake the newly somnambulent Europeans and provoke much antagonism, if not outright resistance.