First, a big power will always find or engineer a pretext to invadea neighbour whose independence it resents. We should remember thatHitler accused the Poles of commencing hostilities in 1939, just asStalin pinned the blame on the Finns when he invaded their country in1940. Similarly, in the case of Georgia and Russia, the criticalquestion is to determine which country invaded the other, rather thanwhich soldier shot the first bullet.
Second, the failure ofwestern democracies to respond to the dismemberment of a friendlynation, albeit a small one, can have very serious global consequences.