Russia/Georgia and the Press

It's interesting how the press has been covering the Russia/Georgia conflict. I mostly just read the right wing stuff, and when it started, most of the commentary was sympathetic to Russia. It was generally agreed that Georgia had started it and had over-played their hand. They wanted a fight and they got one. Several commentators argued that the Russians were just doing what we had done with Serbia/Kosovo back in the 90's. After all, the Ossetians were a small group of people desirous of independence who were standing up to an aggressive neighbor. The Russians were coming to their aid for the principle of self-determination.

All that has now changed. The so-called "conservative" press is now calling the Russian action "meddling" in Georgian affairs. There is no talk of US meddling for the sake of NATO expansion, which has been a disaster for US/Russian relations. There is little question here that we are the expansionist power. NATO should have been disbanded long ago.

During the Serbian conflict, the US carried out 90% of the bombing, with England 9%, and everybody else just 1%. Now, with England backing away from our "special relationship" it's pretty clear to me that we'll be going it alone. To risk antagonizing the Russians, or even risk a shooting war with Russia for the sake of the "alliance" is insane. The fact that Georgia is a democracy is beside the point. Just about everybody claims to be a democracy these days. The government in the Gaza Strip can claim to be a democracy. So what?

The government of Georgia should fall, and Putin is just the guy to do it.