Georgia

And as if we didn't have enough foreign policy problems... Thanks, Vlad. Let me take this opportunity to thank President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary Rice for their strong support for Georgia. I think we can all pronounce freedom in Russia dead. The place is no longer the fledgling republic it was under Yeltsin. Putin and his goon squad have completely transformed the country over the past 6-7 years. And the bear is hungry.

I'm going to depart from my normal libertarian/paleoconservative foreign policy worldview here. We need to do everything possible to guarantee the sovereignty and integrity of not only Georgia, but Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and every other former Soviet/Russian satellite. Yes, up to sending troops there. I wonder how Vlad would like a U.S. Air Force base in Georgia, and a U.S. naval base at Kerch?

Two observations... The silliness of Kosovo just came back to bite us. Everything the Russians and Serbs said on that was right on.

And secondly... maybe if we weren't screwing around in Iraq we could really deal with the Georgia crisis.