So Russia is attacking and possibly occupying its neighbor Georgia. The big nuclear power is attacking the smaller country over a border dispute. The little country is no match for the bigger country, but the smaller country needs to learn a lesson, because it did something first, according to the bigger country.
Sound familiar?
How about 1992 when Iraq invaded Kuwait? Never mind that the United States gave the signal they would do nothing if Iraq crossed the border into Kuwait, once Saddam did it, the United States had an excuse to punish Iraq. And of course, since wimpy George I did not finish the job, tough guy George II was itching to act out his Oedipal complex and do so (just as I'm sure Putin was itching to go into Georgia). So he manufactured some intelligence to make his cause seem just (as Putin claims his cause is just) and sent in the tanks, bombers, and infantry.
Now we are occupying Iraq.
If Putin won't stop until he overturns the government of Georgia, and then occupies the country, what moral authority does George II (or his sycophant St. John the Maverick) have to insist they leave?
The answer is none.
This is what some of us were screaming about years ago when we warned that our illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq would give the green light to other countries to be aggressors. Now Putin has done it, and McCain is flexing his ancient muscles threatening Russia, although it seems pretty clear there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.
Russia is simply holding a mirror up to the United States, reflecting back to us our own behavior in Iraq.
If voters can't see this reality, and the terrible pickle we are in trying to respond effectively to Russian aggression, if they don't see it as partly the outcome of our own illegal aggression, and if they don't reject the utter nonsense of the McCain response, they are not paying attention.
