"Nations on every continent should make clear that invasion and conquest are not acceptable modes of behavior and that Russia will face long-term and damaging consequences if it persists in occupying parts of Georgia and even more damaging consequences if it extends its military campaign."

Yes they should. Now apply that to the USA's invasions of Afghanistan and most particularly Iraq.

My, how self-righteous yesterday's great power aggressor in Washington is waxing over today's great power aggressor in Moscow! ;-) How droll all this rhetoric is.

And here's another piece of very droll rhetoric, intended to create largely false impressions in the mind of the American reader:

"Russia's aggression is really about the subordination of Georgia, a democratic, market-oriented U.S. ally"

The first part is right, Russia is trying to subordinate Georgia...just like the USA has tried to subordinate Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc...

However, the second part is nuanced bullshit intended to deceive, and to invoke old images of Soviet Russia and the Cold War. The use of the words "democratic" and "market-oriented" is disingenuous and laughable. Russia has itself been market-oriented ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, for heaven's sake! Russia has also been hold western-style multi-party elections ever since the fall of the Soviet Union....so why this disingenuous attempt to pretend that Georgia is any more market-oriented or democratic than Russia?

Well, to sway the mind of American readers, that's why.

I suspect that both the Russian and Georgian governments are far less inclined toward true democracy than their outer show of national elections would indicate, but to cast Georgia as supposedly "democratic" (therefore "good") and Russia as supposedly not (therefore "evil") is just rhetoric intended to deceive domestic American consumption...and ditto for the nonsense about "market-oriented" distinctions.