It sounds like a typical regional conflict to me...the kind of thing that was very likely to happen here and there following the breakup of the Soviet Union and the separation of many of its formerly outlying border areas into independent states. I think the Russians and the Georgians have enough issues between themselves that they would be fighting right now even if George Bush had sought a career in baseball instead and the USA was a minor power on the level of, say, Ecuador...and had no influence in the area at all. The Americans will, of course, be interested in playing the situation for any advantage they can, but that's normal in great power politics.

On the other hand, maybe Liechtenstein is behind it all. ;-) They are capable of stirring up anything, those people, and they're rampant capitalists too!