Why does Georgia want to keep these areas so badly anyway? Is having your country look bigger on a map that important?
As I understand it, 'South Ossetia' is an intrusion south of the Caucausus mountains, which form the northern natural defense of Georgia. The other breakaway region is also south of these mountains and represents a large part of the coast of the country. So I think these are pretty awkward regions to lose strategically - of course Georgia's position is pretty much untenable anyway.
