In response to Fred,

I see your point (r.e. Iran), and hadn’t considered the Russian base in Syria. But as a strategic partner to Putin, Iran is not an imminent threat (meaning the next several months, assuming our intelligence is accurate, so no bets there), more within the 2-3 year range at least. We can probably draw this diplomacy game out for a long time.

But in the short term, responding to Georgia, sending a message by bombing Iran probably won’t pull Russian troops back from Tblisi, and would impede any active efforts of assistance to Georgia. If we can stop the Russians now in Georgia, we could very well be setting their strategic goals back a few years, giving us breathing space to continue tightening the screws on Iran.