"Carol, I have said for many years, and from the beginning of this thread, that Georgia's actions were wrong, but Russia is using Ossetia as an excuse to further it's own goals, which are quite obvious even to people who have never been in Russia."

Dead right again, Volgadon. Like I said, it's normal great power (and small power) politics.

Both Georgia and Russia have acted entirely in their own self-interest...just as the USA always acts entirely in its own self-interest. It is facile to endow any of these national participants with a halo of righteousness, because they are all simply pursuing pragmatic ends to what they imagine to be their own benefit. You listening, pdq? ;-)

The Georgians miscalculated, that's all. They underestimated the dangers of a massive Russian response, and they have probably overestimated the extent to which the West will go to help them out.

I would certainly not start a Third World War with Russia over Georgia or South Ossetia, I'll tell you that. To do so would be idiotic, not to mention futile.

Have the Russians ever started a Third World War over the many USA interventions in Latin America? Nope. The one time there was a real danger of that was in the Cuban crisis, but that was because Russia had installed nuclear missiles in Cuba. The West has not installed nuclear missiles in Georgia.