Well, you can pretty much stop all that talk about a proxy war, it appears US soldiers are actively fighting.
The newspaper Izvestia (not linked - in Russian) is reporting that Georgia has taken an American mercenary into custody, and there are reports that black men are turning up amongst the casualties, and suffice to say, I don't think there's a whole bunch of black guys living in (that) Georgia.
Not surprised.
There's a good amount at stake here, but we all know the US cannot take on Russia directly in any conflict.
This will all occur on neutral land through a proxy. Just like Afghanistan 25+ years ago.
The $1 million question remains, "What is Russia's true motivation in Georgia?"