[Little Ray]

You are absolutely correct we can’t respond.

But I see it differently. Fear of Russia’s willingness to resort to military action will allow it to intimidate bordering nations. Other countries will knuckle under, lest they suffer Georgia’s fate.
I bet the Ukraine quickly finds an excuse to let the Soviet fleet back in its port...

[Arkinsaw]

You are absolutely correct we can’t respond.

We can respond. If we do it as a united West and be willing to suffer the pain. We can tell Russia that as long as Georgia's recognized borders are being violated they will have NO ACCESS to any of our markets. None of them. Not Sweden, not Germany, not the US, not Turkey, not Britain, not France. That we will buy NOTHING from them, not even oil or natural gas. That we will seize all assets of the Russian government and freeze all assets of wealthy Russians in our countries. That Ukraine will immediately be enfolded into NATO and reinforced.

There are many ways we can respond that are not military and some of those will be extremely, extremely, painful to Russia and somewhat painful to us.

Unfortunately, the Europeans will never have the backbone to stand united and show Russia just how powerful a unanimous West can be even without a military response.

They will get away with it and Ukraine is next.