The Russian bear comes roaring back, 15 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with an unprovoked attack on the Republic of Georgia to ostensibly look after the interests of the ethnic Russian population of the province of South Ossetia. This is a conflict that has been brewing since the demise of the USSR, as Georgia has attempted to forge links with Europe and to follow a democratic path to an open, westernized society. Unfortunately, the Russians still find that kind of thinking unacceptable and decided to act.
And, the worst part is, we can’t do anythinig at all about it, thanks to our misguided advernturism in Iran and Iraq. Our military is stretched to the breaking point in those two wars, we’re out of money, and — worst of all — the Bush Administration has squandered our moral authority to even decry their little war. After all, if we can just go and attack a country because we’re wheezed off at their leader and his ideas, why can’t the Russians do the same to a country that borders them? They’re just imitating us, we who “won” the Cold War.
What have we become, but the old-style Imperialists that the Communists always decried? Cheny and his henchmen believe that because we won, and because of 9/11, and for whatever other reasons they choose to use, there is some kind of “new reality” that allows these things. Now, in a most unpleasant manner, we have been introduced to the new reality.
As Pogo the Possum once said, “we have met the enemy and he is us.” Or, the old saying “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
