Bear Facts

Here are the Russian successes on the international front:

They successfully protested the US's desired placement of an anti-ballistic missile system in various countries, including the Czech Republic. Despite repeated assurances that the system was designed to combat Iranian missiles and also despite the US's offer to allow the Russians full access to the command and control systems, the Russians said "Nyet". And we bowed to their wishes.

The Russians continued to thwart out efforts in the United Nations to place significant sanctions against the Iranians for the latters failure to come clean with international authorities concerning their nuclear development programs. Russian intransigence on the diplomatic front makes military actions by either the United States of Israel, or both, more probable. Further , the Russians have sold and are in the process of installing a sophisticated air defense system around those nuclear development sites.

While singing his own unique version of Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia on My Mind", Prime Minister Putin sent his troops across recognized international borders and invaded that former Soviet republic, now an independent, capitalist, democratic state with the apparent intention of either re-absorbing it into Russia or destroying its current government and installing a puppet government in its place. The weakness of the west is too painful to describe as the decisions have been made not to take any action to aid the Georgians in their confrontation with the Russian armies.

The shame of our impotence is best expressed here:

GORI, Georgia — In retreat, the Georgian soldiers were so tired they could not keep from stumbling. Their arms were loaded with rucksacks and ammunition boxes; they had dark circles under their eyes. Officers ran up and down the line, barking for them to go faster.

All along the road was grief. Old men pushed wheelbarrows loaded with bags or led cows by tethers. They drove tractors and rickety Ladas packed with suitcases and televisions.

As a column of soldiers passed through Gori, a black-robed priest came out of his church and made the sign of the cross again and again.

One soldier, his face a mask of exhaustion, cradled a Kalashnikov.

“We killed as many of them as we could,” he said. “But where are our friends?”

It was the question of the day. As Russian forces massed Sunday on two fronts, Georgians were heading south with whatever they could carry. When they met Western journalists, they all said the same thing: Where is the United States? When is NATO coming?

The West has become expert at limp-wristed hand wringing and KGB man Vladimir Putin knows it and he will press every advantage he can find.