Sad, isn't it?

Don't look now, pacifists and isolationists, but Russia's listening to you.

Friday, while I was on campus, I overheard some faculty and a few students discussing the situation over in Georgia. I heard them say that the United States provoked the whole thing by offering Georgia help in updating their army's training and equipment, and that it was likely that there were more arms smuggled in in the shipments of humanitarian aid.

I've also heard discussions centered around the idea that we, in specific, and the Western European nations in general, shouldn't be supporting Georgia against Russia in this instance, since the breakaway regions clearly wanted nothing to do with the Georgian government.

This morning, I found a story that Russia's claiming that we smuggled arms in with the humanitarian aid. And another, warning the West away from supporting Georgia. I've seen storeis for several days where Russia announced that they planned to absorb Georgia's breakaway regions, since they were Russian nationals that wanted to be part of Russia, not Georgia.

I sincerely doubt that there were KGB--er, FSB--agents on the small, midwestern campus that I work at, but I suspect that my campus isn't the only place such speculation is going on.

The old Soviet Union called US citizens who worked with and made excuses for the communist regime "useful idiots." It's pretty obvious that Putin and his puppets are still willing to use them. I wonder if they've come up with a new term, or if they still call American communist sympathizers that.

Useful idiots, indeed. I wonder how they explain their nice, militaristic, Marxist friends preventing Georgians from returning to their homes, but claiming that they're not doing anything to prevent Georgians from returning. Or Russian bombers flying patrols near Alaska, and in Northern Europe.