Russian Invasion of Georgia Shows Once Again Neo-Con Sleaze re Iraq

The most important substantive point about the current -- really de-stabilizing and aggressive -- Russian invasion of Georgia is that,

as with the Arab / Israeli conflict, there are no good guys and bad guys here ...

everyone involved is screwed up and responsible for LOTS of outrages against the other side ...

The significant analytic point is the absolute irrelevance of the United States ...

first, in not being able to deter this disaster, which is only beginning, and is bound to get bloodier and uglier for a while to come ...

and, then, as this conflict does grind on in its predictably destructive way, in not being able to do much of anything positive about it ...

As with the whole mess in the Caucasus, there are many reasons for American impotence --

which, it should be noted, has been the characteristic posture of the allegedly "tough guy" Bush regime, and not the allegedly "feel your pain" Clinton administration --

but the key is the self-imposed and -created catastrophe of Iraq,

which has not just destroyed that country, and de-stabilized the entire Middle East from Turkey to Lebanon to Oman to Iran,

but has weakened both the image of US deterrence and reality of its power around the world, not just in the present, but for the foreseeable future ...

So it is particularly enraging to read the screed of effete impudent snobs like Bill Kristol and the rest of the neo-con gang --

people who so vigorously promoted Iraq in the first place, and defend it to this day --

get all sniffy and morally condescending about the US responsibility to go in and help the Georgians militarily ...

Just as in the Cold War, when the US -- for sad but correct big power "sphere of influence" reasons -- sat by while the Soviet Union crushed rebellions in East Germany [ 1953 ] / Hungary [ 1956 ] / Czechoslovakia [ 1968 ] / Poland [ 1981 ]

until Mikhail Gorbachev won the Cold War for the entire world by refusing to do the same repressive thing when East Germans starting leaving for West Germany via Hungary,

thereby creating the conditions for the PEACEFUL breaching of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 --

the US is not / can not / and will not intervene militarily in this situation ...

unless, of course the whole Bush / Cheney / Rove / Haliburton / Blackwater gang can figure out a way to make money off the deal ...

in which case, of course, all bets are off ... ;-) ...

In the interim, it would be better for blowhards like Kristol and his pals to keep their big traps shut about the "necessity" of helping since the Georgians, since any hope of doing that was lost in March 2003,

when the US invaded Iraq for reasons having to do only with the desire of Bush and Cheney to help their once and future employers take with no-bid contracts the hard earned money of US taxpayers shocked and cowed by 9/11 ...