to the future...

It seems this country can talk a lot about democracy, and we do more than our share of starting wars. It seems we had some trainers in Georgia getting them up to speed on warfare, in exchange for them fighting our dirty war in Iraq. Hey, when the battle with Russia broke out (because of an overzealous President Saakashvili who thought he would poke the Russian Bear in the eye with a sharp stick) we even flew Georgian troops from Iraq back to Georgia so the war could continue. Maybe this was another of thosse wars where a proxy does the fighting for us. Either way, we lost.

What happened next was a case of Russia getting a bit fed up with the upstart 'democracies' and asserting their own form of justice. Georgia has been punished, many have died. Could we have done anything about this? No, as we have stretched ourselves so thin, fighting wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and soon Pakistan. 

We are a paper tiger, thanks to Dubya. We can talk a lot, but can't support our 'friends'. 

I see this as a pattern for the near future, as Russia lets the nearby democracies know that they may be next if they host our missile shield, or want to join NATO. 

Welcome to the New Cold War and the new Czar Putin.