Its not like I am an expert in international relations, and I admit my knowledge about this whole Georgia/Russian conflict is a bit sophmoric, but after a week of trolling the net, reading the NY Times and follow NPR, I think I have a fair handle on this friggin nonsense.
What it boils down to is Vlady "Mad as Rasputin" Putin has decided that Russia (with it VAST natural resources, huge military and total control over its populace) is threatened by a small country to its south that seems to be on a path to integration with Europe and the west via admission into NATO.
In the mind of Lili-Putin and pals, this obviously justifies an unmitigated land grab for Russian leaning provinces on the border, and an apparent desire to cut the country in half via take over of Gori, which would effectively shut down transport of people and goods through out this highly mountainous nation. The Georgian president can rightly be blamed for poking the Russian bear, but this behaviour on the part of the Russians is positively 20th century. Didn't we at some point decide that the attack and annexation of sovereign territory was WRONG? I have no idea how this gets solved in the long term, I only hope that the killing of innocents stops. 
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