I'm not as impressed as you.  I think it still shows a lack of understanding of a complicated issue.  Not saying that McCain did any better. He certainly has something to gain politically in this...at least his handlers think so.  But this is not "sovereign Georgian territory " in the traditional sense.   This is South Ossetia.  Even Georgia has admitted that is it an autonomous region.  Almost all the citizens hold Russian passports. Georgia invaded this area and shelled apartment buildings.  They caused most of the civilian casualties.  Nearby Abkhazia is a similar case.  It is technically Georgian territory but most of the Georgians have been ethnically cleansed by the Abkhazis.  Were the Russians itching for a fight?  Probably. The russians think of it as the new Kosovo which has since gained independence.  Russia could take it offer but prefers that it become independent. It is hard to find any good guys here.  But to pass this off as a simple invasion of Georgia by Russia is not spending the time to know what is really going on.  Incidentally the 2014 Olympics are going to be in Socci, just north of Abkhazia.

I've been listening to experts on the NewsHour, Diane Rehm, and elsewhere the past few days, and there are wild disagreements about who's to blame, what's going on here, etc.  I've learned a lot, but all I've really concluded is that it's a freakin' mess, that the Bush administration hasn't exactly done a bang-up job on policy vis-a-vis Russia (or much else), and that John McCain has no plan except to be even more bellicose than the Bush administration.