War in the Caucasus and the Presidential Election

B-Daddy here. In case no one noticed, Russia invaded its neighbor to the South, the former Soviet Republic of Georgia over the last week. Yesterday the Russians announced a ceasefire after over running a good portion of Georgian territory. At the start of the conflict, both major presidential candidates made statements. Guess which candidate was forced by the facts on the ground to later modify his position. More on that in a little bit.

To play devil's advocate for a moment, some will argue that the Georgians had it coming. The President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili sent troops in to South Ossetia to assert Georgian sovereignty in that Russian leaning enclave. (By the way, if that link doesn't work, thank Russian cyberattacks. This is the second time we have seen the Russians use cyberattacks in conjunction with military or diplomatic confrontation, see Estonia.) The Russians say they were merely protecting the Sudetens, I mean, Ossetians from Georgian aggression.

A few facts from an AP article:

MILITARY: Russia has 1.1 million soldiers, Georgia has 37,000. The Russian armed forces have about 6,000 tanks and some 1,700 combat aircraft. Georgia has 230 tanks and 12 combat aircraft.

Given these facts, Barack Obama called for "restraint on all sides" last Friday. More recently Obama stated:

I reiterate my call for Russia to stop its bombing campaign, to stop flights of Russian aircraft in Georgian airspace, and to withdraw its ground forces from Georgia. The Georgian government has proposed a cease-fire and the Russian government should accept it. There is also an urgent need for humanitarian assistance to reach the people of Georgia, and casualties on both sides.

However, I like McCain's instincts and suspicions of Russian much better. He condemned the Russian invasion from the start and has called for real sanctions such as expelling the Russians from the G8 for such aggression.

But hey, you the voters need to make the call. I also note that the Georgians sent troops to Iraq to fight alongside the U.S. forces there, but I guess that's just more reason for progressive democrats to throw them under the bus, er tank. Whatever.