[I was a staunch Cold Warrior but the continued expansion of NATO is provocative in nature.]
What Russia wants or doesn’t want is not our problem. Russia almost 2x the size of the next largest country in the world. It has plenty of breathing room - certainly more room than any other country on earth. The issue is that Russians are about conquer or be conquered. Note that mainland Russia is only 50 miles across the Bering Strait from Alaska. They are not a theoretical threat.
I didn’t say disengage, selling Georgia weapons to defend themselves is absolutely on the table but this is their fight, not ours. You are actively looking for a fight if you keep expanding NATO into former Soviet provinces. Do you want to go to war over Kazakhstan or some other former province wanting in NATO? Giving or selling arms to independent countries to build up their military should be done, but I for one am not sending my son to die in yet another world war in Europe because of Georgia.
And I know they are fifty miles from Alaska do you suggest we invade their western Russia and push them back further from Alaska?
Letting a bully know if you cross this line there will be consequences and backing it up and knocking the hell out of him if he does is one thing. Walking up to a bully and constantly hitting him, taking his lunch money and knocking him around makes you the bully and eventually you will get a response. My question is, does whether or not Georgia is fully independent worth a nuclear exchange?