[sam_paine]

Better analogy:

Mexican separatists in Coahuila along the Texas border are being issued US passports.

Mexico, with military equipment provided by Iran and Russia, starts shelling the separatists inside the Coahuila border.

US Army rolls from Ft Hood into Mexico to push the Mexican Army back out of shelling range, destroys the Russian equipment, and rolls far enough into Mexico to force retreat into Mexico City.

Kinda sounds like what’s actually happened before, except that it was a naval landing at Veracruz.

[dirtboy]

In your scenario, the US is not defending its own territory. It is intervening in another country's internal affairs.

I find it absurd that posters think Georgia should have just ignored separatist attacks. Russia was working to provoke Georgia into attacking.

[Dr. Frank fan]

That is a good analogy. In your analogy, the US would be doing these things (issuing US passports to Mexican separatists (!), having a 'peacekeeper' troop presence there (which you neglected to add), etc) because they wished to eventually take over and assimilate that part of Mexico for some strategic reason. At the very least, others could be forgiven for interpreting the hypothetical US motives as such.

Which is no different than how I and others interpret Russian motives here.