Russia & Georgia and USA & Texas

Anytime I see conflict. I always try to walk in their shoes. It's not always possible because the media seems to be very opinionated. Instead of telling the story, they tend to take sides or only interview one side and present that side as fact.

This Russia & Georgia conflict has somehow forced me into this situation again. I've always liked Putin. I don't know why exactly. He seems very smart and I like smart people. He could be as dumb as an ox and his PR people are very good. Who knows, but I've always liked him.
I'm going to skim over the details to get right to my analogy, but if my understanding is correct, Georgia used to be part of the Soviet Union along with several other little countries around the Russian border. There is a territory called Ossetia. The southern part of Ossetia is in Georgia. The northern part is in Russia.
I was reading one news story yesterday where they "supposedly" interviewed an older woman living in the southern Ossetia region and her and her children or grandchildren were complaining about the Georgian president and were praising Putin for coming to help. So, does South Ossetia want to be part of Russia?

What would happen if Texas left the USA, but folks in the panhandle decided they wanted to stay with the USA. What would the USA do if the country of Texas began to bombard the panhandle in an attempt to "persuade" them to quiet down and be happy where they are at?

The USA supports democracy. It's worked pretty well for us. But, in this case, to honor the democracy you have to ask all the people in South Ossetia what they want. If the majority want to become part of Russia, then it's a done deal. Hopefully our government's intelligence is better than it was pre-Iraq...