Well I'm glad to see someone pointed out the the Georgian military actually instigated the conflict.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aqXEOFTNv_bk&refer=home
The way I read this and in my blog was that Georgian military attacked South Ossetia. Since most of South Ossetia's citizens carry Russian passports, it appears Russia was, in essence, "defending" its citizens.
I believe it's the case that Russia has some probable cause to be attacking. I don't agree with taking over the country, but it appears it was a genocidal attack that prompted Russian military action.
This gets to what I'm talking about, in parentheses:
Georgia and Russia began fighting when Russia moved in troops and bombed targets (after Georgian forces began an offensive into South Ossetia, which split away from Georgia in an early 1990s war).
Russia has said its actions are (justified by what it calls a Georgian-waged ``genocide'' in South Ossetia). Russia says (most of those killed in the conflict are civilians who died through Georgian military action).
I think it is probably true, but I've yet to come up with a motive for the Georgian military attack.
I'm definitely for free markets, capitalism and democracy, but I don't believe that's what's going on here. For some reason, it looks as though Georgia instigated these attacks.