The war doesn't make much sense from either perspective. From my view of America's non-involvement, Georgia was committing suicide; from your point of view the Americans were setting themselves up for an embarrassed defeat.

The best I can do is imagine the Georgians (or one of them at least) acting out of some deluded notion of the West coming to help them out of a mess they created. This didn't really happen, though it was surprising the lack of condemnation of Georgia in open.

This is working on the assumption that Georgians started the war. As I recall, they say that Russians/South Ossetians weres sniping at them for ages and that the Russians were moving more troops into the area. It's certainly clear that Georgia had no control over a slice of their own territory. Anyway, the assault was an act of desperation (though conveniently timed as you point out).

As for Venezuela and the Russians, well they're all Opec buddies aren't they? And with Venezuela's plummeting revenue and no chance of a dig-out from Uncle Sam, they have to look elsewhere for allies. Russia's a very rational choice. I think China's been snooping around in the area too, attracted by what oil there is. And good luck to them I say.