"ROAD TO WAR IN GEORGIA"

I think this Spiegel Online piece tends to support Michael Totten. But still a lot of blame to spread around--and note this, giving a pretext for Russian action:

[...]

Putin, meanwhile, watched and waited -- he wanted to see how the Kosovo question would turn out. He made it clear that if the ethnic Albanian province was granted the right to secede from Serbia, the West could not deny Abkhazia and South Ossetia the right to secede from Georgia. On Feb. 17, 2008, the United States, Great Britain and France recognized Kosovo's independence...

Mark C.

Update: More from STRATFOR (via a friend):

Georgia and Kosovo: A Single Intertwined Crisis

The NFLR&R blog

My favorite podcast now has a regularly updated blog, too.

Damian P.

Mmmmmmkay?

"Drugs are bad: police"

Damian P.

They know how to treat a lady, don't they?

The Alex Jones cultists are proud of themselves for ganging up on a woman the other day:

It was a good thing, Alex getting up in her face. It was good Alex and company chased the little darling of Faux News down the street and back to her hotel.

It was the least they could do. (via Tim Blair)

Damian P.

Could the outbreak have been stopped?

With some commentators raising the spectre of Walkerton, this could become a very big story indeed:

A leaked cabinet document that outlined plans for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to give the food industry a greater role in the inspection process raised the ire of opposition politicians last week.

However, some of the plans have been in place since March 31, according to a CFIA manager and an official from the union that represents the federal inspectors.

At the Maple Leaf plant behind the listeria outbreak, a single federal inspector was relegated to auditing company paperwork and had to deal with several other plants, the manager and the union official said, contradicting the impression that officials had left last week that full-time watchdogs were on-site.

Under the new system, federal inspectors do random product tests only three or four times a year at any given plant. And meat packers are required to test each type of product only once a month.

Under the old system, inspectors had a more hands-on role on the plant floor, did more of the tests themselves and had more freedom to investigate, said former CFIA inspector Bob Kingston, who is national president of the Agriculture Union, a branch of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

The government should only do a few things, but ensuring the safety of the food supply is one of them. Even with rigorous inspections, this might have slipped through - but we may never know. If this story has legs, that should put an end to all the election talk we've been hearing lately.

Damian P.

Update: more here:

The inspector stationed at the Toronto plant at the centre of a deadly food-borne outbreak is responsible for six other facilities under a new inspection system that has drawn complaints that staff "are working off their feet."

The claim comes as federal health officials have increased to 15 the number of deaths linked to the outbreak.

Complaints have flooded in from some inspectors in "resource stressed" areas such as Ontario and Alberta since March, when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency brought in a new compliance verification system (CVS), according to Bob Kingston, head of the agriculture unit of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents food inspectors across Canada.

How long before heads start rolling?

"Fair-weather freespeechers"

Too many self-described "free speech activists" aren't so tolerant of expression they personally find offensive, notes Rob Breakenridge:

Given the number of instances where conservative Christians have been called to task and even prosecuted for their words -- Bishop Fred Henry, Rev. Stephen Boissoin, Hugh Owens, Catholic Insight magazine, the Christian Heritage Party -- it's not surprising to see the so-called "religious right" mobilize in support of freedom of expression.

It has also helped the cause -- you won't often see groups like the Canada Family Action Coalition and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association agreeing on much. The broader the consensus, the more successful this fight is bound to be.

However, the religious right needs to decide just how committed it is to freedom of expression. If you haven't the stomach for the fight, best to sit it out.

Last week, the aforementioned Canada Family Action Coalition demanded that the federal government step in and revoke the broadcast license of a new Canadian adult film channel. CFAC president Charles McVety describes the existence of Northern Peaks as being "to the public detriment" and fears the adult channel will "corrupt minds."

In other words, the approach of the CFAC on this issue of "offensive content" is really no different from the approach of the pro-censorship crowd on other matters of "offensive content."

Whereas supporters of human rights commissions believe we can engineer a society devoid of "hate," the anti-porn moralizers believe we can engineer a society devoid of "immorality."

[...]

If religious conservatives are gung-ho for the rights of Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine to write and publish what they see fit, where was that same enthusiasm for free speech when Vancouver-based Little Sister's Bookstore and Art Emporium was fighting for the right to sell gay and lesbian-related material?

It's easy to support free speech for people who don't offend you, isn't it?

Damian P.

A truly creepy murderer

A very interesting article in the London Review of Books (though tinged with the usual anti-Americanism, plus jabs at the English class structure):

Just Two Clicks

Mark C.

Mass: "no better cure for a hangover of a Sunday morning"

Terry Glavin reflects on the role of religion in public life, based on this:

Michael Coren: Stéphane Dion finds God

Mark C.

A burning national issue?

Not one member of the parliamentary press gallery raised Afghanistan during prime minister Harper's August 26 press conference.

Mark C.

Update: I was wrong--see first comment by David Akin of Canwest News. But no media coverage of Afghanistan from the press conference that I've found, even in Mr Akin's own story, as published.

Upperdate: David Akin, to his credit, clarifies in a further comment that his question was not actually about Afghanistan as such, and asks what question I might have put. Here it is:

Mr Harper: Recent violence in Afghanistan, and political turbulence in Pakistan where the Taliban are based, suggest that the conflict with the Taliban will remain very difficult and violent for the foreseeable future. Many more Canadian soldiers are likely to die. What can you say to convince Canadians that our military mission there remains worthwhile and can succeed?

"The Truth About Russia in Georgia"

Totten's latest. Read it all, now.

Damian P.

Dave Barry in Denver

He'll be in "Minnesota or possibly Wisconsin" for next week's GOP convention, too:

...Yes, Clinton has been making speeches urging her supporters to work for Obama; but at the same time she has also been using what one Obama adviser described as "a lot of air quotes."

Damian P.

Malkin meets the mob

Say what you will about Michelle Malkin, but she did an astonishing job of keeping her cool when Alex Jones was screaming in her face.

Damian P.

Donkeys on the job/Questions

CPAC is providing live coverage (streaming too) of the Democratic National Convention.

And, for a refreshing change from our Commons:

British Prime Minister's Question Time

Friday 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT

Saturday 6:30pm ET / 3:30pm PT

Mark C.

A plot against Obama?

Thankfully, authorities say this guy never posed a "credible threat" to the candidate. But it's chilling nonetheless - and a reminder that, as several Presidents and Presidential candidates have discovered in the past, one guy in the right place at the right time can do a lot of damage.

I've mocked the "Obama assassination" meme - that is, the near certainty, expressed on several left-wing sites, that the Senator will be martyred for AmeriKKKa's sins - on this blog in the past. That doesn't mean there's no threat at all, and even those not supporting Obama should hope he stays safe.

Damian P.

What's Harper thinking?

The Prime Minister is violating the spirit (if not the letter) of his own fixed-elections legislation if he asks for the dissolution of Parliament, according to James Bow. Andrew Coyne, meanwhile, suggests that the Governor-General can just say no - assuming Harper asks for the election in the first place.

Coyne thinks Harper is bluffing, and so do I. If he really wanted an election, he'd introduce controversial legislation, declare it a confidence vote, and (presumably) lose. As long as the Dion Liberals won't defeat the government, however, who needs the election to begin with?

Damian P.

"Police-state efficiency"

That's how the Chinese organized a successful Olympics, according to a headline in my local paper. And here's an example of said efficiency in action:

Thousands of Chinese farmers face ruin because their water has been cut off to guarantee supplies to the Olympics in Beijing, and officials are now trying to cover up a grotesque scandal of blunders, lies and repression.

In the capital, foreign dignitaries have admired millions of flowers in bloom and lush, well-watered greens around its famous sights. But just 90 minutes south by train, peasants are hacking at the dry earth as their crops wilt, their money runs out and the work of generations gives way to despair, debt and, in a few cases, suicide.

In between these two Chinas stands a cordon of roadblocks and hundreds of security agents deployed to make sure that the one never sees the other.

The water scandal is a parable of what can happen when a demanding global event is awarded to a poor agricultural nation run by a dictatorship; and the irony is that none of it has turned out to be necessary.

[...]

It became clear to the Chinese government that the number of tourists would be much fewer than expected. They also decided, in effect, to expel a host of migrant workers from the capital. Many residents opted to shun the oppressive security measures and left town. Beijing no longer needed the water. (via Hot Air)

When the Chinese Communists start fiddling around with agriculture, very bad things happen. But hey, Beijing certainly looked good...

Damian P.

Obama can't do the math

But George Will can. There's also that tiny consideration of getting legislation through Congress...

Mark C.

One of the world's longest defended borders

Predators -- and a definite end to the good old days:

DERBY LINE, Vt. -- The changes started coming slowly to this small town where the U.S. border with Canada runs across sleepy streets, through houses and families, and smack down the middle of the shared local library.

First was the white, painted lettering on the pavement on three little side streets -- "Canada" on one side, "U.S.A." on the other. Then came the white pylons denoting which side of the border was which. After that, signboards were erected on some streets, ordering drivers to turn back and use an officially designated entry point.

And along with the signposts came an influx of American Border Patrol agents, cruising through the town in their green-and-white sport-utility vehicles with sirens, chasing down cars and mopeds that ignored the posted warnings.

For longtime residents accustomed to a simpler life that flowed freely across a largely invisible border, the final shock -- and what made most people really take notice -- was a proposal by the border agents last year to erect fences on the small streets to officially barricade the United States from Canada, and neighbor from neighbor.

[...]

"It was freer before, but we live in a different world now," said agent Mark Henry, the operations officer at the Border Patrol's Swanton Sector, headquartered in Swanton, Vt. The sector encompasses about 24,000 square miles, extending from the town of Champlain, in Upstate New York, on the east all the way across to the border with Maine. The sector now has 250 agents, up from 180 three years ago, and the number is scheduled to reach 300 next year.

In 2001, there were 340 agents along the entire border with Canada.

"We're more visible," Henry said. "We've gotten more aircraft, more vehicles, more boats, more ATVs -- pretty much everything, we've got more. And we've got more people to man them."..

Mark C.

Update: Dr Dawg takes a trip down memory lane, and and also notes:

[...]

This is not simply a matter of Homeland Security paranoia, though. Terrorism aside, our porous borders have been smugglers' heaven. Until recently, some of the customs offices on the back roads had office hours. If you arrived at the wrong time, you were expected to double back and find one that was open. Everything and everyone, from drugs on that golf course to illegal immigrants at Derby Line, have flowed through the boundary...

Now if only something could be done about Akwesasne...

Vick, Couch, Carr, Smith

Four of the last seven NFL quarterbacks drafted first overall are no longer starting, and two of them aren't even in the league anymore. JaMarcus Russell must be getting a little nervous.

2005: the worst draft class ever?

Damian P.

Elmasry and Co.

Here's a tip for the head of the Canadian Islamic Congress: if you're legitimately concerned about your fellow Muslims' public image, appearing alongside a Jew-hating conspiracy theorist - not to mention leaving his name of the publicity materials, and then bringing him in as an "extra speaker," suggesting that you know he might be controversial - is not helping.

Meanwhile, having filed human-rights complaints against its ideological opponents, the CIC is now turning its attention to its ideological allies. But Winnipeg IndyMedia's "editors" know who's really to blame:

What happened is that brainwashed political Zionist fanatics noticed that some news was being leaked out on Winnipeg IMC through their media monopoly that allowed people to learn a small amount about the Zionist atrocities in the Middle East, including Israeli, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and elsewhere, and also about Zionist criminal conspiracies in Canada, the USA and elsewhere. The Zionist control freaks saw this news and analysis as being "anti-semitic", so they launched a spam attack on Winnipeg IMC. This precipitated an information war between increasingly desperate Zionist information terrorists and spammers, and others seeking to counter the false Zionist propaganda and anti-Islamic hate literature. In the course of this heated exchange of information and ideas, the content posted by the Zionist fanatics became increasingly racist, warmongering, hate mongering, and anti-Islamic in the its tone. This was quite informative for those interested in political, social and cultural analysis, as it revealed the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the Zionist position, and the moral, legal and ethic depravity that political Zionist is rooted in.

In the course of this informational and ideological debate the Islamic people of Canada took notice and were apparently offended by the increasingly shrill and hateful anti-Islamic content of the Zionist propaganda. They feel obligated to put an end to this flow of hateful and false Zionist propaganda, which should never have been allowed to be posted in the first place. However, a shortage of Indymedia volunteers (other than Zionist fanaitics themselves) prevented the Winnipeg IMC site from being adequately edited to root out this vile and illegal content.

The solution to the problem is the same as it has always been. Divide the newswire into three sections. One for Canadian and World news, generally of a progressive bent. One for Middle East analysis of a progressive bent. And one section for Zionist propaganda. ...

Legend has it that loyal Soviet citizens shipped off to the Gulag convinced themselves that it was all a horrible mistake, and that Comrade Stalin would surely have never allowed it to happen. When I read the Winnipeg IMC's response, that's the first thing that came to mind.

Damian P.

Lileks in Denver

He's blogging live from the Democratic convention this week.

Damian P.

Update: LGF and Zombie have teamed up to cover the convention protests, too. Should be fun.

The audacity of politics

Dr Dawg sees a deep and dark subtext in the choice of veep by The Himself (engaged in a "mad flight to the centre" according to the good Dr; well, he is hoping to win, unlike our NDP).

Jason Cherniak is down in the dumps too. By why didn't Mr Obama's Afghan policy - not that his policy suddenly emerged - wake many people up earlier?

Mark C.

What stinkin' fixed election date?

I'm afraid I must agree with Rex Murphy about prime minister Harper's shameless switcheroo. How can Parliament be dysfunctional if M. Dion rolls over and shows his belly on every confidence vote?

And here's a lovely paragraph from the Ottawa Citizen's Randall Denley:

[...]

The problem is, Harper is such a smart guy that sometimes he even outsmarts himself. He's dying to call an election, but one of his own election promises is making things complicated. His fixed-date election law was one of those easy pieces of legislation that was meant to create the illusion of reform, but now that Harper wants to shoot his own government in the head, he finds he has no gun. Having told voters that scheduled elections would prevent governments from manipulating election dates to their advantage, it's now difficult to manipulate the election date to his advantage without someone noticing...

Mark C.

Trying to blow Afghanistan up...

...into a big political issue:

1) Jim Travesty in the Toronto Star:

Afghanistan explodes onto agenda

2) Ralph Surette in the Halifax Chronicle Herald:

New Afghan crisis may be real election issue

I'm sorry, but a bad week does not signify any imminent crisis--unless you want troops out. Odd too that neither columnist seems to have noticed that help will probably soon be on the way from the US and UK--as for most of the rest of NATO...

Mark C.

Update: Haroon the Magnificent of the Toronto Star seems to have forgotten what he criticized Mr Obama for talking about concerning Afghanistan. How convenient.

"Bailout" today, real bailout tomorrow

TTAC's Robert Farago says $25 billion is just the beginning:

Seriously; $25b is not enough cash to sustain GM for a couple of years– never mind GM, Ford AND Chrysler. To put that number in perspective, when Ford doubled-down and mortgaged the farm (including their logo) in 2006, they raised $23b. GM's contribution to the United Auto Workers health care VEBA fund is (i.e. was) $29.9b. A $25b federal loan may be The Mother of All Band-Aids, but it's nowhere near enough cash for The Big 2.8 to reinvent themselves.

It is, however, a "doable" sum if you're dressing-up a bailout as an "investment." No doubt supporters of the domestically-owned automobile industry are already comparing the $25b figure to the cost of the war in Iraq, or the space shuttle, or tax breaks given to oil companies, or some such thing.

And anyway, it's a prelude to a kiss: the REAL bailout (in for $25b, in for another $25b). Truth is, it would extremely difficult for The Big 2.8 to ask for a "realistic" loan– or loan guarantee– to turn all their asses around. That number would be near-as-dammit a trillion dollars.

Of course, like all trillion dollar– or, I should say $25b federal expenditures, the vast majority of the money would disappear down a rathole, never to be seen again. American-owned automakers are not a cash-starved start-up looking for enough money to bring PC products to market. They're a motley crew of failed businessmen and women who've demonstrated an abject and ongoing inability to develop competitive products. Giving them more money to piss away would not solve anything.

[...]

The real deal killer: Detroit's irrelevance. The gas-electric hybrid Prius already exists. Fuel efficient small cars already exist (some of them sold by Detroit). As far as the general public is concerned, even the plug-in Volt is coming along nicely – without federal funds. The public can easily see this $25b "green loan" for what it is: an attempt to help Detroit do what should have been doing all along. A reward for incompetence.

Giving The Big 2.8 federal tax money to play with is also a bad idea for Detroit. Even if the operation is a success, without Chapter 11 reorganization, the patient will die.

Damian P.

Marching in Georgia

The conclusion of an assessment of president prime minister Putin (he's following in the tracks of the Czars, I'd say) by David Remnick:

[...]

There is little doubt that the Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, provided Putin with his long-awaited casus belli when he ordered the shelling of South Ossetia, on August 7th. But Putin’s war, of course, is not about the splendors of South Ossetia, a duchy run by the Russian secret service and criminal gangs. It is a war of demonstration. Putin is demonstrating that he is willing to use force; that he is unwilling to let Georgia and Ukraine enter NATO without exacting a severe price; and that he views the United States as hypocritical, overextended, distracted, and reluctant to make good on its protective assurances to the likes of Georgia.

Inevitably, a number of neoconservative commentators, along with John McCain, have rushed in to analyze this conflict using familiar analogies: the Nazi threat in the late nineteen-thirties; the Soviet invasions of Budapest in 1956 and Prague in 1968. But while Putin’s actions this past week have inspired genuine alarm in Kiev and beyond, such analogies can lead to heedless policy. As the English theologian Bishop Joseph Butler wrote, “Every thing is what it is, and not another thing.” Cartoonish rhetoric only contributes to the dangerous return of what some conservatives seem to crave—the other, the enemy, the us versus them of the Cold War.

Only one with a heart of stone could fail to be moved by the spectacle of the leaders of Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic states standing by Saakashvili last week at a rally in Tbilisi. But Putin is not Hitler or Stalin; he is not even Leonid Brezhnev. He is what he is, and that is bad enough. In the 2008 election, he made a joke of democratic procedure and, in effect, engineered for himself an anti-constitutional third term. The press, the parliament, the judiciary, the business élite are all in his pocket—and there is no opposition. But Putin also knows that Russia cannot bear the cost of reconstituting empire or the gulag. It depends on the West as a market. One lesson of the Soviet experience is that isolation ends in poverty. Putin’s is a new and subtler game: he is the autocrat who calls on the widow of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. To deal with him will require statecraft of a kind that has proved well beyond the capacities of our current practitioners.

Mark C.

Damian adds: Russian-born Cathy Young is unmoved by arguments that Russia is the victim here.

Update: Just to stir things up further (see "Comments"), the conclusion of a piece by Simon Jenkins in the Sunday Times:

[...]

Any student of McCain or Obama, of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, or of the leaders of Britain, France and Germany, might conclude that these are not people likely to go to war. They are surely the children of peace. Yet history shows that “going to war” is never an intention. It is rather the result of weak, shortsighted leaders entrapped by a series of mistakes. For the West’s leaders at present, mistake has become second nature.

A bit OTT in my view. Moreover, a certain person did intend to go to war in September 1939--as did another in March 2003. There are other examples. Maybe even Canada when we moved into Kandahar in early 2006--though the scale of combat surprised us.

Upperdate: "One would wish only for a little more cynicism..." about the Caucasian cauldron (via Arts & Letters Daily).

Pink Lloyd's fantasy world

Linkage that has no chance in a gazillion of being taken seriously by anyone:

...The Arctic is in danger of becoming a source of serious conflict among Canadians, Americans, Europeans and Russians. The consequences: The interests of northern indigenous people will be ignored, the impact of climate change on the region's delicate ecology will be overlooked, and the prospect of co-operation in creating well-governed sea routes that can open up new trade opportunities will be lost.

...The interests of Canada can be best served by not getting into a hissing match with other northern countries. There is too much at stake. The overpowering need to work together on the effects of climate change and to ensure orderly sustainable development calls for strengthening the ties of co-operation through operating effective institutions, agreements governing transportation, resource development, and promoting the social and economic well-being of northern people.

[...]

The Russians, in their current mode of aggressive self-aggrandizement, may be a more difficult sell. But I know from experience there are many Russian policy-makers who see the value of co-operation [as in, er, Georgia? - MC]. And they might be willing to trade off a disbanding of the foolish missile-defence effort in Eastern Europe for better relations in the North...

Sell that to the Poles (and Czechs) Mr Aworthy. To think that this gasbag was our foreign minister from 1996 to 2000...

Mark C.

Predate: "Softy" Axworthy, in his anti-American bubble, seems to have missed that diplomacy is already well under way.

You didn't need binoculars...

...to see this coming down the road:

U.S. carmakers seek $25B bailout: Report

That "b" word, maybe?

Mark C.

Where are our fanatical peaceniks?

Why aren't they howling against the Indians' oppression and killing of Muslims?

SRINAGAR, Kashmir — Born and reared during the bloodiest years of insurgency and counterinsurgency, inheritors of rage, a new generation of young Kashmiris poured into the streets by the tens of thousands over the past several weeks, with stones in their fists and an old slogan on their lips: “Azadi,” or freedom, from India.

[...]

All told over the past two months, the protests here in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and counterprotests led by Hindu groups in the plains below, have left a death toll of nearly 40 in clashes with security forces.

The two sides remain at each other’s throats. Muslims in the valley allege that Indian troops have been quick to halt their protests, while letting Hindus in the plains carry on their agitation...

For my part I think Kashmiris should be allowed to decide their future--independence, Pakistan or India--by a plebiscite as the UN Security Council called for some 60 years ago. The Indians, however, will never let Kashmir go peacefully while Pakistan loves to stir things up there. The best one can hope for is that the Indians are not too ham-handed (but in 2006 it was estimated that "fighting in Kashmir has claimed the lives of between 30,000 and 60,000 people" over the previous ten years--where were our anti-war mavens?), and that Pakistani actions do not lead another Indo-Pakistani war.

Meanwhile, for reasons of Realpolitik (and to some extent culture), the West needs good relations with India, so we do not protest much--about all we can do in the serious world of foreign affairs.

By the way, one of those mavens, Sacha Trudeau, propounds their steadfast fixation (see the "Comments" at the link):

"Our aggressive military activities in Afghanistan are foolish and wrong...We're going to have to leave the place or there'll be nothing left of us or of whatever we've done, except the blood we've lost there after we leave. So it's better we leave now."

Alexandre should rather take heart from the success of his namesake's successors.

Mark C.

Damian adds: the sad thing is, you just know Alexandre is going to be a major contender for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada by 2020.

Update: A cracking Globe and Mail editorial takes Sacha to taska.

Obama-Biden

The campaign makes it official:

Barack Obama Saturday named veteran Senate colleague Joseph Biden as his vice presidential running mate, adding foreign policy heft -- but also a loose tongue -- to his ticket for November's election against Republican John McCain.

After hours of media leaks, the 47-year-old Democratic White House hopeful confirmed that he was picking the Delaware senator, 65, in an early-hours email and text message sent out to millions of signed-up supporters.

"I've chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate," Obama said in the email. "I'm excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can't do this alone. We need your help to keep building this movement for change."

[...]

The chairman of the Senate's foreign relations committee has twice run for the presidency himself, including a shot at the Democratic nomination this time round when he had some unflattering things to say about Obama's inexperience.

Republican John McCain's campaign responded by saying Obama's choice of Biden was an admission that the Democrat was not ready to serve as president.

"There has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama's lack of experience than Joe Biden," McCain spokesman Ben Porritt said in a statement.

"Biden has denounced Barack Obama's poor foreign policy judgment and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realizing -- that Barack Obama is not ready to be president," he said .

But in turning to the loquacious and pugnacious Biden, Obama is banking that the veteran's expertise on national security will blunt McCain's attacks and that his personal background will keep wavering Democrats in the fold.

Biden's foreign-policy expertise makes him an understandable pick, but the heavily hyped text-message announcement was made this morning at 4:50AM Eastern Time. I know all the cool kids are supporting Obama, but surely even most of them are asleep by that point. Maybe the campaign wanted everyone talking about it over breakfast, but why Saturday?

Damian P.

"The car of tomorrow, today"

The grand prize on a 1975 episode of Let's Make a Deal: Canada's most famous sports car. (The only one of these I've ever seen in the metal fiberglass was at a small car museum in - where else? - New Brunswick.)

The vehicle's namesake hasn't been doing so well, lately.

Damian P.

Not a paper tiger...

...but a real pussy. Dear Georgia, Charles Krauthammer gets it:

NATO Meows

While Richard Holbrooke (a member of Barack Obama's "foreign policy team") has a lot of nice proposals to help Georgia that are unlikely to pan out.

As for The Obama Himself, he sure thinks the Chinese can:

"Everybody's watching what's going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics , Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business, you're starting to think, 'Beijing looks like a pretty good option.'"

Read the rest of the link if you're looking for true paper tigers.

Mark C.

Obamaplan?

Yes, George Bush can (if the Iraqi leadership agrees). Can Mr Obama find it within himself to decry this?

The United States has agreed to remove combat troops from Iraqi cities by next June and from the rest of the country by the end of 2011 if conditions in Iraq remain relatively stable, according to Iraqi and American officials involved in negotiating a security accord governing American forces there.

The withdrawal timetables, which Bush administration officials called “aspirational goals” rather than fixed dates, are contained in the draft of an agreement that still must be approved by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders before it goes before Iraq’s fractious Parliament. It has the support of the Bush administration, American and Iraqi officials said...

Now the surge for Afghanistan; at least Mr Obama is all for that--much to the consternation of many easily smitten Canadians. And there may also be a Brit surge.

Mark C.

Update: The Himself is getting desperate; Mr Obama tries to paint Mr McCain as more belligerent than president Bush:

Obama pounces on Iraq troop deal to slam McCain

The Himself now has no Iraq policy to run on and he was wrong about the surge. Two strikes.

Chretien and China

Kelly McParland follows the money.

Damian P.

Actors for McCain

Yes, they exist. I find the presence of Jon Cryer on this list most interesting, considering that his Two and a Half Men co-star believes McCain's party staged the 9/11 attacks. Awkward...

Damian P.

Obama is American. Deal with it

FactCheck.org definitively beats down one of the stupidest conspiracy theories in recent memory. (via Hot Air)

Note who's been recently pushing the "fake birth certificate" story, by the way. More proof, as if any were needed, that to believe one crazy conspiracy theory is to believe all crazy conspiracy theories. (Speaking of which...)

Damian P.

Canada's peace movement (such as it is)

Jack Granatstein vivisects:

[...]

Today’s peace movement is a curious amalgam of left-wing groups. At its heart is Maude Barlow’s Council of Canadians, which takes positions on a host of issues — water is now the favoured topic — but still devotes time and money to security questions. The Barlow group provides the treasurer for the steering committee of the Canadian Peace Alliance, an umbrella group of mostly small organizations (such as the Burlington Association for Nuclear Disarmament). It promotes the Canadian Department of Peace Initiative, a campaign to get a minister of peace into the federal Cabinet. And it opposes the war in Afghanistan, calling for Canada to get out now and to cease its support for the American agenda. The problem with the council is that it is largely a one-woman show, and Maude Barlow’s interests determine where her abundant energies are devoted. Water is the issue now, so peace seems to be on the back burner.

Less hard-line than the Barlow constellation, there is Peacebuild, a network of non-governmental organizations and individuals led by Peggy Mason, a former Department of Foreign Affairs officer with impeccable credentials — and connections. Peacebuild gets funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Canadian International Development Agency (which provided a one-year grant of $575,673 in 2007!) and the International Development Research Council, as well as from foundations. Afghanistan and the Sudan are its current issues of choice, and it quietly makes a pretty good case for its positions. Perhaps too quietly.

So who makes noise on the peace front? There are individuals like Michael Byers, a law professor who has been much in the news since he came back to Canada a few years ago. Based at the Liu Centre at the University of British Columbia and now seeking an NDP nomination for the next election, Byers is a genuine expert on the Arctic. Unfortunately, he also writes and talks a good deal about broader military questions where he is much less knowledgeable.

Then there is Steven Staples. Staples worked for Maude Barlow’s organization and then for the Polaris Institute in Ottawa which, as it says, aims at “retooling citizen movements for democratic social change.” In January, 2007, Staples set up the Rideau Institute for International Affairs, “an independent, research, advocacy and consulting group,” and Byers and Mason are on his board of directors, while Barlow is listed as a senior advisor. As an advocacy group, the Rideau Group cannot provide tax receipts, so it struggles to raise funds and says it supports itself with donations from like-minded groups and by doing writing/consulting/lobbying work for organizations such as — surprise, surprise — the Council of Canadians.

Steven Staples sometimes seems omnipresent in the media, not because he is an expert on peace and security issues, but because journalists want balance. (If I have a pro-war opinion here, I must have an anti-war comment there. Only the Toronto Star’s Tom Walkom appears to believe that quoting Staples and Byers alone provides balance [an example is here, I give the facts here - MC]].) His program director, Anthony Salloum, a former NDP staffer on Parliament Hill, “found” some secret Department of National Defence documents in a garbage can (and if you believe this I have a Bloor Street viaduct I can get for you cheaply), and the two have a shrewd sense of what will get attention.

More after the break.

Steve then fires, with his usual inimitable charm, a staple back at Jack (note the site where he posts it):

Dinosaur Jack Granatstein strikes again

Mark C.

Lost LUV

A forgotten seventies Chevy. (Were these even sold in Canada?)

I do miss these little trucks, though. (My parents has a Datsun "King Cab" for a couple of years.) Except for the geriatric Ford Ranger (and Mazda B-series), this segment has been completely abandoned - and with gas prices at current levels, the time is ripe for an ambitious automaker to jump back in. I'm looking at you, Hyundai/Kia...

Damian P.

Swimming in the cesspool

Via Harry's Place, a list of people who've appeared on The Political Cesspool, a neo-Nazi radio show from which Jerome "Obama Nation" Corsi is now desperately trying to distance himself. (Too late, Jerome.)

As you might expect, most of the guests are Holocaust deniers, white supremacists and fringe politicians, with the occasional washed-up oldies musician thrown in. (Seriously.) But a few ultra-leftists (Kirkpatrick Sale, 9/11 conspiracy freak David Ray Griffin) have also been interviewed on the show - more proof, as if any were needed, that the extreme right and extreme left really aren't that much different - and the name of a certain "award winning author, columnist and broadcaster" under the "M" list really caught my attention.

Of course, it's possible that many of the guests on Political Cesspool had no idea what kind of program they were dealing with. That's why, whenever you're asked to appear on a radio show, it's a good idea to check the program's website:

Your chance to hear a real Holocaust survivor

If you’re anywhere near Alabama, and you want the chance to meet a real hero, mark August 26th on your calendar. That’s the day David Irving, a survivor of the Jewish Holocaust against free speech, will be speaking at the Prattville Holiday Inn. ...

Damian P.

Frosted Flakes!

I'm not referring so much to the wholesome breakfast cereal so much as the whiners "experts" objecting to Michael Phelps' new contract.

Good on Kellogg and Phelps!

Capitalism 1: Elitism 0.

Joseph Hayyim

Damian adds: this.

Three brave Canadians

More devastating news from Afghanistan:

Three Canadian soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Afghanistan's Zhari district, Canadian military officials have confirmed.

Task force commander Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson made the announcement from Kandahar Thursday, adding that a fourth soldier was also injured by the blast.

[...]

Sgt. Shawn Eades has been identified as one of the soldiers killed in the attack.

Eades was widely "respected by his subordinates, his peers and his superiors," said Thompson.

"He was a veteran soldier and this was his third tour in Afghanistan," he said. "He was a devoted father who liked to share stories of his children with his colleagues and friends."

Thompson said the families of the other two soldiers killed have asked that their names be withheld at this time.

Meanwhile, George Petrolekas, a Canadian veteran of the Afghan mission, has composed an open letter to the Taliban. It speaks volumes about the quality of the men and women serving with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, and why they do what they do:

You purport to speak for Afghans and Afghanistan yet your only questionable legitimacy comes from the barrel of a gun, the slaughter and intimidation of innocents supported by the profits of the opium crop that you protect. You do not answer for the night letters you send, the people you behead, or the villages you hold hostage whose only crime is that they do not agree with your views.

And yet you dare say that we come to kill your innocent, equally forgetting the deaths of thousands of innocents committed by your fellow travellers in crime; so conveniently forgetting the slaughters of Bali, Madrid, London and New York City. Your words may sound high and mighty, but your actions and deeds betray the truth of what you are: a movement committed to the enslavement and servitude of those whose voices cannot be heard. You revile America forgetting that it gave you more food, flour and wheat than any other nation while you were in power; what did you do for the Afghan people?

People you have fooled say that Afghanistan was more secure under your rule. But what is security under an institutionalized cabal that "legally" kills, amputates and disfigures those who do not agree with it?

You kill the defenceless, and those who come to give hope, simply because they are foreign, and you do so not as men, but hiding behind the disguise of women, or using women and children as shields, or using those who have lost the ability to think to carry out your crimes. And in doing so, you defile the very words of your God and his prophet. How can the prophet feel peace in the face of your cowardice? You have killed more Afghan men, women and children by your bombs and attacks than any other nations combined. While we may have killed innocents by accident, those deaths pale in comparison to the thousands you have killed by design. God may forgive us the loss of those souls; he will never forgive you.

[...]

And even in the face of such cowardice, lies and betrayal of the Afghan people, the hand of peace has been extended to you time and again with the simple request that you denounce violence and intimidation. But no, that does not serve your needs, which are among the vilest ever seen on this planet: simply to ply a nation back into servitude.

And so, we are in Afghanistan to give voice and protection to those whose voices cannot be heard.

Damian P.

Know thine enemy

Terry Glavin knows his (links in original):

...You'd think that it would fairly evident by now that there are some kinds of enemies who will want to kill you no matter whether you're wearing a blue helmet or a brown one, or whether you're just a brave, unarmed woman, trying to help disabled children get an education.

You'd think it would be clear by now that enemies of this kind will want to kill you whether you are an infidel or not, and whether you are a foreigner or not: Case, Kirk, Dial and Aimal were working for the International Rescue Committee in Afghanistan, where all but 10 of the IRC's 600 workers are Afghans, and Muslims.

But the delusion persists, as is most vividly demonstrated by the likes of NDP rising star Michael Byers: "In Afghanistan, it's time to move from a combat-oriented approach to one that focuses on negotiation, peacemaking and nation-building. . . It's time to move NATO troops out, and UN peacekeepers in." And this: "NATO troops should be replaced with UN peacekeepers."

[...]

You need soldiers...Even if the NDP is sincerely and honestly ignorant of that fact and of so many other plain facts of recent history, the vast majority of the Afghan people are not, as the journalist-humanitarian Sarah Chayes, writing from Kandahar, patiently explains to readers of the Globe and Mail last week. The enemy we're up against will hang a 16-year old boy for the crime of working as an apprentice to a driver of a truck that carries humanitarian wheat to Kandahar, for starters. "The Afghans do not support this so-called insurgency. They are its primary targets, Chayes writes...

Do read the whole post.

Mark C.

Is the bear really bizarre?

Or merely the lack of reaction?

"My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." When Ronald Reagan joked about attacking the USSR a whole lot of people went spare. So where's the uproar now?

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Polish counterpart signed a deal Wednesday to build a U.S. missile defense base in Poland, an agreement that prompted an infuriated Russia to warn of a possible attack against the former Soviet satellite.

[...]

After Warsaw and Washington announced the agreement on the deal last week, top Russian Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn warned that Poland is risking attack, and possibly a nuclear one, by deploying the American missile defense system, Russia's Interfax news agency reported...

I suppose the outrage is absent because the Russian general did not indicate an attack was imminent. Or something. In any case I like the secretary of state's riposte: 'Rice has told reporters that such comments "border on the bizarre."'

In any event it's well to remember that the USSR itself "outlawed" Poland last century--thankfully not forever, though--with a little help from Stalin's friend.

Meanwhile, Georgia, 'NATO Is a Paper Tiger'. Take a look at this too:

A Special Kind of Pathology

Mark C.

That "tedious and tiresome propaganda"

The Conservatives, sadly, will not dare raise the issue of greater private sector involvement in health care:

Politicians who shy away from discussing health care on the campaign trail do so at their peril, Canada's top doctor warned yesterday.

Brian Day, outgoing president of the Canadian Medical Association, said doctors are frustrated by the lack of meaningful public policy discussion on health and vowed they will make their presence felt during the next federal election campaign.

[...]

Dr. Day also bemoaned the fact that there is a reluctance to discuss and debate these issues publicly. "The private-public rhetoric on health care is a relic of tedious and tiresome propaganda. Those who argue against and demonize the private sector need a reality check," he said...

Frankly, I'm scared out my pants by the fact that companies making profits are actually allowed to supply the scalpels, MRI, CT scan and X-ray machines, operating theatre lighting, and computers used in our hospitals. Time for a government takeover of the medical supply industry!

The new CMA president, for his part, is taking up the good fight, much good that will do in the short term (outside of Quebec, and maybe B.C. to some extent):

The natural next step for Canada's health system is allowing more private delivery, which will give patients more choice, and better access to care, the new president of the Canadian Medical Association says.

"My whole career has been about resolving access issues. This is my battle horse," said Robert Ouellet, who takes over today as president of the CMA.

"Private delivery is an accepted practice everywhere in the world and it's time Canada accepted this reality."

A radiologist by training, Dr. Ouellet, 62, owns and operates five medical imaging clinics in suburban Montreal. He is an unabashed promoter of private-sector delivery of medical care and keen to introduce more competition into Canada's health-care system, and he knows this will make him a lightning rod for criticism...

Here's just one good reason for greater private sector involvement--and yes, I think people should be able to buy private health insurance to supplement the single-payer system:

[Dr. Ouellet] stumbled into private practice. As head of radiology at the hospital, he was pushing for a CT scanner but was told that it would take between two and three years for the government to process the request.

Outraged, Dr. Ouellet and others in the department bought the CT scanner and contracted their services to the hospital. The workers compensation board and provincial automobile insurance board also signed contracts.

"Rather than wait six months for a scan at a hospital, we provided them in a couple of days," Dr. Ouellet said. It took five years for the hospital to get a CT scanner, which speaks volumes, he said.

Later, Dr. Ouellet and colleagues opened an axial tomography clinic, an MRI clinic and two diagnostic radiology clinics, all private.

Much of their business comes from the publicly funded system, but patients can pay themselves or use private insurance.

Each clinic has a price list at the door, as required by law. At the MRI clinic, it reads: "Brain $650. Pelvis $735, Hip (each) $650."..

Mark C.

Cement-head socialism

Concrete action from the Hugonator as he sends in the troops:

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has forcibly taken control of foreign-owned cement plants after failing to reach a deal to nationalise them.

Government officials and national guard troops seized two plants owned by Mexico's Cemex, the largest producer in the country, after talks broke down yesterday...

Mark C.

A hard bargain pays off

Two years after negotiations stalled, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador has signed a deal to develop the Hebron offshore oil project:

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams proclaimed a new era of partnership in the often-fractious relationship between his government and the oil industry Wednesday as he inked a deal to proceed with the $7-billion Hebron offshore project.

The often-combative premier said the megaproject will generate some $28-billion for provincial coffers at current oil prices, and company guarantees of local contracting will lure back Newfoundlanders who have left the province to find work.

But he said the oil companies - led by operator Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. - can expect generous profits even if oil prices fall back from current levels.

“This is really a win-win,” Mr. Williams told a news conference in St. John's.

Appearing at a news conference with Chevron Canada president Mark Nelson, Mr. Williams acknowledged the past squabbles that stalled the offshore megaproject for some 16-months.

“We had to play tough to up the ante ... There were some tough things said and we went through some tough times,” he said.

As part of the deal, the province has paid $110-million to gain a 4.9-per-cent interest in the project and, through a subsidiary of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, will contribute its share of costs for its construction.

Danny Williams's tough line in negotiating with resource companies, and his constituent's overwhelming support for same, can be explained with two words: Churchill Falls. Fortunately for Newfoundland and Labrador, $115/barrel oil does give the people who have the oil quite a bit of bargaining power.

Damian P.

Good on the (gasp!) Toronto Star!

Sometimes they do surprise one:

The Taliban's big lie

Much more here on recent Taliban attacks, especially against the French. And here's one benefit of turfing the Talibs (maybe even of the Beijing Games):

In Rohullah Nikpai's war-torn country, fighting is a part of life. Living in tough conditions is a given. Training for the Olympics is a luxury few can afford, or even imagine.

But Nikpai has proven it can be done: On Wednesday he won Afghanistan's first Olympic medal ever.

"I hope this will send a message of peace to my country after 30 years of war," Nikpai said after winning the bronze in the men's under 58-kilogram taekwondo event...

Mark C.

Hurricane safety tip

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever do this. (Amazingly, the guy survived.)

Damian P.

Pipelines on the fevered brain

But bravery first and then more on the delusion. There's more from Mr Glavin at Drink-Soaked Trotskyite Popinjays for WAR:

Avast! Islamophobic Imperialist Ziocon Canuck Buccaneers Abaft!

Mark C.

Update: Still more from Terry the Pirate:

It's All About Oil. Or Something like that.

Bow to your new masters, Canada

The Liberals are firm about not sucking up to the Americans. But sucking up to the Chinese, now, that's another story:

Jean Chrétien says Prime Minister Stephen Harper was wrong not to attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.

And the former prime minister believes Canada may pay a high price for his absence.

Chrétien, who was speaking at a Monday news conference following a speech to the Canadian Bar Association in Quebec City, said he would definitely have gone to Beijing had he still been prime minister.

He said Harper should have been at the celebration, given China's economic and demographic clout, and the mentality of its leaders.

[...]

...Dimitri Soudas, Harper's assistant press secretary, later pointed out to the Toronto Star that Chrétien himself had not attended the opening ceremonies of four out of the five Olympic Games that were held while he was prime minister.

He attended the 1996 ceremonies in Atlanta but skipped the festivities in Lillehammer, Norway; Nagano, Japan; Sydney, Australia; and Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah.

"Based on his remarks, should we conclude that relations with those countries were damaged?" Soudas asked.

[...]

China's political leanings should not influence the decision to accept or turn down an invitation to the Olympics, Chrétien said.

"We deal with Saudi Arabia and that is not a very big democracy," he said, adding that China has made tremendous progress in respecting human rights in recent years.

Chrétien suggested relations between China and Canada have deteriorated since the Conservatives came to power.

"As a Canadian, I deplore that we've lost our standing" with China, and Canada is at the bottom of the list of countries the Asian giant will want to do business with in the future, he contends.

"Ask any businessman who goes to China, and he will tell you."

Harper's widely-publicized appearance with the exiled Tibetan leader Dalai Lama last fall did not help Canada's relations with China, Chrétien said.

Stupid Dalai Lama.

Damian P.

Caution: Low Flying Aircraft

St. Maarten:

Via Cracked.com.

Damian P.

Understatement of the year

Lefty economics writer David Crane, in the Chronicle Herald:

In the case of Russia, though, the West, and especially the U.S., has engaged in provocation, humiliating Russia at times of its weakness, and displaying no sensitivity to its own concerns. We have ignored Russia when it raised concerns of its own.

The U.S. has established military bases around different parts of Russia, pushed for anti-ballistic-missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic while ignoring Russian concerns, and worked hard to create tensions on oil and gas between Russia and the oil-rich states of the Caucasus.

In Georgia, whose bloody attack on South Ossetia led to open military conflict with Russia, the U.S. must accept some of the blame.

The Bush administration trained the Georgian military and funded its acquisition of significant military hardware, championed Georgia as a key ally and pushed for Georgia’s membership in NATO, despite strong Russian objections.

[...]

Russia is not blameless in this. But... [emphasis added]

Most sensible observers realize that the conflict between Russia and Georgia has complicated historical roots, and that nearly every party involved must accept some of the blame. That said, it's telling that some people are much more outraged about attempts to keep Russia from invading its neighbours than...Russia invading its neighbours.

Damian P.

Update: Pitchfork Pat really does have a thing for strongmen, doesn't he?

Cheap labour

Any scumbag can promote anti-semitic conspiracy theories. But using the homeless to promote anti-semitic conspiracy theories? That's so evil, Satan himself might be a little creeped out:

Since the passage ten years ago of the Safe Streets Act with its strict controls on panhandling, the Toronto Street News has become a popular alternative, selling 4,000 copies every two weeks across the city. Homeless people pay a nominal fee at various collection points, then sell it for $2 an issue.

But under this guise of charity, it has become the city's most prominent vehicle for hate propaganda, outrageous conspiracy theories, blatant plagiarism and libellous personal attacks, though virtually nothing about the homeless, all published at the whim of a man who lives a two-hour drive away in Ontario's farm-belt.

In the past year, the paper has claimed that Liberal MP Bob Rae's name was changed from Levine to hide his Jewishness and that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's secret true birthday is the same as Adolf Hitler's, which "looks good on a resume" for "New World Order types." [They think that's a bad thing? - DP] It has claimed that a police officer covered up racist attacks on a shopkeeper, and even the editor admits one article was an illegal incitement to genocide against Jews. Ads are rare to non-existent, and often unpaid.

"It's a little left wing," the General [a homeless salesman] said. "Real out there."

[...]

About a year ago, [publisher Victor Fletcher's] journalism finally got him into serious trouble.

He had printed, without permission, a piece from Hal Turner, a prominent American racist and anti-Semite, about a North American common currency. It read, in part: "Are you starting to grasp why so many things are going wrong lately? Does a lot of it start to make sense when put in the context of wiping out currencies in the name of globalization? It's the jew bankers, folks.

"Another jew banking scam designed to enrich the few at the utter devastation of the rest!...This is EVIL treachery on such a massive scale that the only proper response may be to simply KILL everyone involved."

"You can always tell you're dealing with a real intellectual by the number of capital letters they use," said Len Rudner, Ontario director of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

Faced with the CJC's police complaint, even Mr. Fletcher agreed this was hate speech, apologized in print, and promised to stop running columns by another anti-Zionist conspiracy theorist, Henry Makow, although he has recently started again.

Mr. Rudner said the CJC made a human rights complaint against Mr. Makow for describing Jews as a cancer, and it has been referred for a tribunal hearing.

Is this human rights complaint more justifiable than the ones against Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant? Discuss.

Damian P.

Roseanne vs. Angelina

Meow!

Damian P.

Truth-o-meter and Flip-o-meter

In an election year, this site is definitely worth bookmarking.

Damian P.

"Georgia is no longer friends with Russia"

Earth's Facebook page.

Damian P.

Musharraf resigns

Considering that Pakistan is a nuclear-armed state bordering Afghanistan, on whose territory the Taliban and Al-Qaida continue to operate, and where much of the population is at least sympathetic to Islamic extremism, this is probably the most important story in the world right now:

Mr Musharraf's departure from power marks a new chapter in Pakistan's volatile 61-year history at a time when the country, which is an ally in the US-led "war on terror", is battling pro-Taliban and al-Qa'eda militants.

Mr Musharraf said he was handing in his resignation to avoid an impeachment battle that would harm the nation's interests.

The president has been under intense pressure to resign since last week when the government announced it would seek his impeachment if he did not step down.

The country had been paralysed by a power-struggle since elections in February when the president's political party handed power to a coalition government headed by his rivals.

[...]

It was not immediately clear whether Mr Musharraf would stay in Pakistan. He said his fate was in the hands of the Pakistani people.

Reports circulated that Saudi Arabia, a friendly sponsor that is often the destination for Pakistani exiles, had sent an aircraft to collect Mr Musharraf.

The ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP), headed by Asif Zardari, the widower of the assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, had agreed to give the president "safe passage", meaning that he will not face prosecution.

Damian P.

"Putin screwed up"

Kevin Drum thinks the conflict with Georgia has backfired upon the Russians. (Note that he doesn't write, "Medvedev screwed up.")

...The West was never going to actively approve of the Russian invasion, but if Putin had limited himself to a short, sharp clash in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it would have been an almost unalloyed victory. The murky status of the provinces combined with the fact that Saakashvili sent in troops first would have kept Western reaction to a minimum, and Russia's message would still have been sent loud and clear: don't mess with us in our sphere of influence.

But then Putin got greedy — or just made a mistake — and sent Russian troops into Georgia proper. This was almost certainly militarily unnecessary, and it succeeded mainly in uniting virtually everyone in outrage against Russian aggression. Putin can pretend all he wants that he doesn't care about Western opinion, but he obviously does — and what's more, Western unity makes a difference in concrete terms too. Poland's quick turnaround on missile defense is probably just the first example of this. The U.S. has gotten lots of bad reviews for its handling of the situation, but in the end, the countries on Russia's border are more firmly in our camp now than they were even before the war.

Via Glenn Reynolds, who has much more about how Russia's neighbours (and former client states, or Soviet republics) are responding.

Damian P.