How does it threaten our interests?

To many rambling posts with incessant references to "The Bear" could rob us of the will to live...

Also, Russian Imperialism threatens peace in Europe. I think you could make the argument that a peaceful Europe is in the best interests of the US, and depending on where Russia might want to carry its Imperialism in the future, it could drag us into a conflict that involves NATO for real.

Lotsa "could" in there. Do you have any specifics re Europe proper? If not, this isn't any advance on Beldar's bald assertion.

Um Georgia has a pretty good oil reserve and pipeline. Georgia is a much friendlier friend than a lot of the other countries with oil. It is in our interest to keep them friendly.

Also, Russian Imperialism threatens peace in Europe. I think you could make the argument that a peaceful Europe is in the best interests of the US, and depending on where Russia might want to carry its Imperialism in the future, it could drag us into a conflict that involves NATO for real.

Blame assignment in this conflict is probably in the end a futile task.

the dim mists of ancient history.

When McCain was in High School?

What Russia is doing is evil and wicked and brutal, and it threatens not only innocents abroad, but American interests.

How does it threaten our interests?

We can debate for hours and days and months and years and decades about the justifications for the southern states' succession from the Union, but one need not undertake that full exercise to conclude, correctly, that slavery was evil and the South was wrong to try to preserve it.

Wishy-washy relativism -- John Kerry "global test" relativism, Barack Obama "citizen of the world" relativism -- is the exact camouflage the Russian Bear craves. What Russia is doing is evil and wicked and brutal, and it threatens not only innocents abroad, but American interests.

Reagan understood this. I think McCain, for all his many other flaws, does too.

It seems a little misleading to quote the first paragraphs of the long article that speak of the fuse for the current crisis being ignited the day before conventional wisdom has dictated and then saying this anaylsis is good as far as it goes.

But Charles, on the "who lit the fuse question," Totten writes:

“The fuse was not just lit in Moscow,” [Worms] said. “It was also lit in Tbilisi. There was a guy in charge here, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, a little bit like [Serbian Nationalist war criminal in Bosnia Radovan] Karadzic. He was a poet. He was an intellectual. But he was one of these guys who veered off into ethnic exclusivism. He made stupid declarations like Georgia is only for the Georgians.

Then, there's this:

“Now fast forward to the Rose Revolution,” he said.

The Rose Revolution was a popular bloodless revolution that brought Georgia's current president Mikheil Saakashvili to power and replaced the old man of Georgian politics Eduard Shevardnadze who basically ran the country Soviet-style.

“The first thing that Misha [Mikheil Saakashvili] did was try to poke his finger in [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's eyes as many times as possible,” Worms said, “most notably by wanting to join NATO. ...”

I think on balance, Totten's article is supportive of James's caveat:

... There’s been plenty of action and reaction going on for generations [on both sides that makes it difficult ed.] to pin the responsibility on any one person or event.

It seems a little misleading to quote the first paragraphs of the long article that speak of the fuse for the current crisis being ignited the day before conventional wisdom has dictated and then saying this anaylsis is good as far as it goes. Mr. Totten's article goes into much, much greater depth than that.

Georgia Crisis: Who Started It?

Urban Meyer