Your President seems to be handling this pretty well. Russia is isolated, Ukraine/Poland resurgent, and nuclear war hasn’t broken out. The Russians are in Georgia now, but they won’t be able to destroy the country.
And their obvious violence and rapine has handed the West - and “Evil baby-killing America” in particular - an astonishing propaganda coup. No-one who is mentally reachable can deny the difference between the surge in Iraq and the Russians in Georgia.
Which is why Putin could still go for broke.
He conquered Georgia and all he has to show for it are these neat $1.50 NATO bayonets and a couple of autonomous regions he already mostly controlled.
Excellent post. I quite agree with your points.
Interesting observation, but not sure I concur.
Russia’s “isolation” may not mean anything in fact, as long as they can rely on Europe as a market for their petro products. And if the rest of Europe found energy sources elsewhere, the Russians could find markets in India and China and other places.
I am not sure that Russia can’t destroy Georgia. Read “The Sabers of Paradise” an old book about czarist expansion in the Caucasus. If the Georgians had the military tendencies of the Afghans, for whom killing has long been a form of popular recreation, we could ship the Georgians sophisticated military weaponry and provide military back up and advice as we did in Afghanistan.
“And their obvious violence and rapine has handed the West - and “Evil baby-killing America” in particular - an astonishing propaganda coup. No-one who is mentally reachable can deny the difference between the surge in Iraq and the Russians in Georgia.”
That is all true. But on the other hand, who would want to be an ally of nation who was unable to come to your assistance when attacked by a gang of thugs?