“Send some humanitarian aid in the form of night vision equipment, anti-tank weapons and MANPAD anti-aircraft missiles to the Georgians”
If the Georgians fight back at this point the KGB will just send their armor into the capitol and depose the Georgian government.
That's what the anti-tank weapons are for. If I were Bush or Rice today, I would be telling the Russians in no uncertain terms that if they don't withdraw their forces to the two provinces that they've already stolen from Georgia, we'll turn the rest of Georgia into another Afghanistan for them. That's the bear trap I refer to.
Since when does the Georgian government need to run out of Tblisi?
They can be located anywhere, as long as they have good lines of command, control, and communication. Their border with Turkey would be a pretty safe place, as I doubt the Turks would put up with armed Russian tank brigades and infantry divisions anywhere near them.
The Russians would definitely counter attack. If we supply them with missiles, and I think we should, we need to send them over in the thousands. Hand one to every soldier.