Addendum

As Mama pointed out, my phrasing in the last post is rather ambiguous where Tskhinvali is concerned. What I meant is that the early reports coming out of South Ossetia, even if ultimately proven to be untrue (the claim of 98% damage was made by a European official who was cited in the Süddeutsche Zeitung; the figure of 2000 civilian deaths that was much quoted by the press did, it has turned out, come from the Russian military, so I don't know what the true toll is), were troubling enough that a strong reaction was to be expected and, in my personal opinion, warranted as long as the targets are not civilian.