Rah,

Nice bit of analysis. I do kind of get a whiff of Ottoman futility in Putin’s strategy. It is a setback for the Russians precisely because they have not been able to utilize their potential power to simply roll into Tblisi and replace Saashkavili. When push comes to shove they have to step carefully in their own “near abroad.”

The Americans ARE coming to Georgia. There WILL be a serious effort to reconstruct Georgian infrastructure. The message sent to our friends will be that we can’t guarantee that bad stuff won’t happen, but we will promise a big boost after the storm passes.