Just a few observations:
Perhaps Ivan has pulled up short for several reasons
1) bad logistics
2) mechanical troubles with armor
3) effective anti-tank weapons used by Georgia
4) their losses were worse that war-gamed when this invasion was planned, and the advance was slower than promised. Putin may be compromised both internally and externally, and called a halt to allow a “psyops” regrouping.

And there is always the thought that this would go faster for the Russians, and the Georgian army excercised the better part of valor and did not let themselves get destroyed and withdrew deep enough into Georgia to lengthen the fight.
Yesterday Wretchard chastized my comment about the invasion and defeat of Georgia as being a fait acompli.
Perhaps I spoke too soon, but even if there is a “cease fire”, there is still warfare by other means. Perhaps we underestimate the incompentence of the Russian Army at this late date. But we should not underestimate the persistence of their intelligence services, re- the DNS attacks and the “maskirova” of postings in Western blog media.
This sort of thing bounces off most Americans, but our feckless European friends are on vacation now (and have been for years), and will look for any excuse to keep the wolf from the door, for one more year.

Just a few observations. Good night.