He's a neo-con super hawk and PNAC alumnus.  There is no war he doesn't want to start.  Now he's willing to go to war with Russia because he's in Georgia's back pocket ($$$).  So is John McCain.  Scheunemann is John McCain's principle foreign policy advisor.  This explains McCain's immediate overwhelming bluster to punish Russia, despite the fact that Georgia initiated the hostilities and killed over 1400 South Ossetian men, women and children.

Patrick Buchanan explains it in a piece published today, And None Dare Call It Treason.

http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=13338

for more background:

  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Buchanan_accuses_McCains_neocon_warmonger_of_0822.html

EDIT: 

I'm not picking on McCain.  Obama is surrounding himself with equally poor advisors...note the drop in the polls after backtracking on every issue that got him (not yet) the nomination in the first place.