PRUDEN: A legacy lurks in the shadows

Don't know what Putin's view is but past effectiveness of "principled diplomacy" would be an invitation to remain in Georgia, move into the Ukraine and reunite Yugoslavia the same way he is reuniting Georgia.

Wesley, excellent article. The United States will *have* to help our Georgian ally. What can we expect next with our failure to lend credible assistance to one of our allies? The fall of Taiwan?

Sounds like they need a major "color revolution" in Russia. We'll get the CIA on that asap. In the mean time, as they say down here in the south, Russia NEEDS a major ass whuppin'.

I fear that the legacy of GW ain't gonna be pretty. He lied to me, he lied to you. I believed him once but I'm not a patisan conserative regardless of reality. And he needs to stop challenging Putin to diplomatic chess. Putin waited for Georgia to make a play for expansion and the US consultants told Georgia all would be fine. Now all is lost, as is Georgia's oil. Gas just went down in Moscow.

Mag7: What exactly did Bush lie about? Except that he'd secure our borders of course. There's a lot going on that you should educate yourself about. Diplomatic chess is a viable strategy, hence the announcement today about Poland's missile shield. I'm sure there's more to come there too. I personally think we should be over Georgia right now bombing the Russians out of the country. But failing that, isolation and containment is a good start.

Crafty (post 3), I'm sorry but I'm sick of funding reconstructions and wars. Georgia waived diplomacy and tried force, Russia siezed the chance knowing the US was beyond available. Are you and your friends going to enlist? Maybe McCain will sell one of his ten homes to help. And Bush holds himself accountable for nothing and never has. He'll be fine, we'll be deeper in debt rebuilding refineries so Exxon can get by.

wvobiwan, I support the Poland missile shield, they have every right to self defense given Russia's history of occupation there. And please don't lecture me on the nuances- I work for the DoD. Now will the war in Georgia "pay for itself"?

wvobiwan, I support the Poland missile shield, they have every right to self defense given Russia's history of occupation there. And please don't lecture me on the nuances- I work for the DoD. Now will the war in Georgia "pay for itself"?

Just another example of the total incompetence of our intelligence capabilities. The Russians must have spent weeks, if not months, assembling the strike force for Georgia. However, knowing all the leftist, marxist and socialist sympathizers in the CIA, State and DoD (Mag7 comes to mind here) why would have anybody been alerted? Georgia gambled on South Ossetia and lost. Russia planned, waited, invaded and won. Sarkozy had his Neville Chamberlain moment, Condi backed him up with empty rhetoric and Vlad is laughing so much he can't catch his breath to order the next invasion into Ukraine.

Lizard, I do not work in intelligence, and apparently nobody does in the Bush administration. I could not agree with you more regading Russia's planning and waiting for the inevitable. Putin checkmates the chimp again.

Lizard, I do not work in intelligence, and apparently nobody does in the Bush administration. I could not agree with you more regading Russia's planning and waiting for the inevitable. Putin checkmates the chimp again.

Why do I get the idea that Mag7 is a "career" worker in the DoD, if an employee there at all. "Bush lied" is really lame. No proof to back it up. Nor can one than to point to the fact that President Clinton told us the same things Bush did. Not surprising since they had the same intelligence. But just because Clinton had lies that were proven I never thought he lied about Iraq because he never once wagged his finger while talking about Iraq. However it was proven that Joe Wilson lied and did so more than once (about how he was chosen for the trip and the documents he "saw and knew were fake"). And of course we just found out that tons of yellowcake were secretly confiscated and held in Iraq until recently transferred to Canada. So Iraq not only sought the stuff but had managed to stockpile a huge amount. So is Mag7 a liar simply because he is wrong?

Where to Start.... Bush has lied constantly about Iraq, it's "involvement" in 9/11, its WMDs, connections to bin Laden. Joe Wilson was correct in his findings and it is IMPOSSIBLE that the French oversite of Nigerian uranium mines missed half the annual output (several tractor-trailors worth) of uranium simply driving out the door. The disclosure of Wilson's wife as CIA is also a felony, but laws mean nothing to the Bush Administration. The Iraq war has nothing to do with national security. Saddam couln't blow his nose without the US knowing it. He was an evil dictator, as there are many, but under virtual house arrest posed no danger except to Kurds and Shiites. After the first gulf war Bush 41 did nothing to help those groups gain control. They were abandoned and crushed.

The left once again reflects the view of countries such as Venezuela and Russia on our nation. Chevez and Russia That isn't surprising. As usual they have very weak logic for yet another conspiracy view. The current conflict is as likely to benefit Obama as McCain. First the left can use it in their smears and attacks against McCain, and have shown a great willingness to do so. The left claims the US has broken international law time and time again, but these same voices rise in defense of Russia's actions. There is no cry on Russia's use of unproportionate use of force, on Russia's misuse of its peacekeeping mission obligations, on Russia's use of force against a soveriegn nation. Rather the left accuses the US of provoking Russia into threatening the use of military and nuclear weapons with the missile agreement in Poland. The left is extremely selective in their statements and actions. If that is their view of justice, that it only applies when it agrees with their position, then save us all from it. I cannot help but notice that the messages in this forum have turned from being about the article, to being about Bush and his administration and Iraq again. If the US intelligence had been so good that Saddam could not blow his nose without the US knowing it, we would have had better intelligence and probably removed Saddam by other means, along with his high level supporters. The forces in the first gulf war were an international coalition under a UN mandate. The US had not authority to protect the Kurds and Shiites. The US and Britain did ultimately work together to setup the no-fly zones, surprisingly enough they were often criticized as being against international law. Sanctions, criticized as being to harsh on Iraq at the time by some, are pointed to by the same groups that once criticized them and demanded they be removed, as an argument that it wasn't necessary to remove Saddam and his government from power. Saddam did say that had sanctions been lifted he would have reinstituted all the illegal weapon programs including nuclear. Saddam was in fact working with some governments and groups specifically to pressure removing the sanctions based upon claims of Iraq's hardship under them. The US Congress agreed to Iraq, while some of it may have been based on information that was wrong, the fact remains much of the reasons in the resolution existed.

Itswin, thank you for clarifying that Sadamm had no WMDs and that obviously the American taxpayers were lied to, oops, I mean misinformed.