Cold War Spin Only Compounds Georgian Crisis

William Pfaff / Truthdig Aug 15, 2008 History -- not democracy -- provides the explanation for the crisis in Georgia, in which the United States is recklessly involving itself. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Georgian President Checks In With Glenn Beck, Katie Couric

Staff / Truthdig Aug 14, 2008 First the showdown with Russia, now the U.S. media tour: Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili paid a virtual visit to American news shows on Wednesday, telling CBS News anchor Katie Couric that the Russians were violating the newly instated cease-fire agreement with Georgia, then being buttered up by CNN's Glenn Beck, who reminded his audience that there are streets in Georgia "named after our president." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

McCain’s Irony-Challenged Diplomacy Primer

Staff / Truthdig Aug 14, 2008 You've seen the quotation, now watch the clip of Sen John McCain, either in deep denial or completely irony-impaired (those being the more generous of many possible interpretations), giving his pronouncement that " in the 21st century, nations don't invade other nations" Oh . Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

A Cut-and-Paste Foreign Policy

Joe Conason / Truthdig Aug 14, 2008 The discovery that John McCain's remarks on Georgia were derived from Wikipedia is, to put it politely, disturbing and even depressing -- but not surprising. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

McCain Adviser Deep in Georgia’s Pocket … book

Staff / Truthdig Aug 14, 2008 It's just too bad that the only Americans apparently qualified to advise John McCain on how to deal with the world are those hopelessly corrupted by hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent payments from foreign countries, such as beleaguered Georgia. Good thing that guys like Randy Scheunemann (above, left), whose two-man lobbying firm took in a cool million from Georgia since 2004, have a superhuman ability to separate their analysis from any financial considerations. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Russia: They’re Baaaaaaaaack

Staff / Truthdig Aug 14, 2008 They aren't as big, and their iconography is nowhere near Soviet-grade, but according to columnist Anne Penketh of London's The Independent, the Russians' Georgia invasion can only be seen as a rank humiliation of the West by a triumphant Vladimir Putin. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

U.S. Flying Aid, Condi to Georgia

Staff / Truthdig Aug 14, 2008 Upping the ante in Moscow-Washington tension over the border war between Russia and its former satellite state, Bush announced Wednesday that the US military is flying humanitarian aid to Georgia, with his secretary of state to follow Georgia's president, however, is spinning this as the first step in a U military intervention. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

A No-No in Europe Is Just Ducky in the Mideast

Staff / Truthdig Aug 14, 2008 John Stewart says it's the "geopolitical equivalent of the fortune cookie [plus] 'in bed' ": U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalizad (above) trashing Russia's aggression but limiting comparison to the Iraq invasion by adding a qualifier that tells us we're talking about someplace that matters to civilized people. Follow-up questions for extra credit: Is Georgia really in Europe? And how many Americans are worried right now the Russians will take Atlanta? Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Georgia War a Neocon Election Ploy?

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Aug 13, 2008 Is it possible that this time the October surprise was tried in August, and that the garbage issue of brave little Georgia struggling for its survival from the grasp of the Russian bear was stoked to influence the U.S. presidential election? Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Russia, Georgia Reach Tentative Peace Agreement

Staff / Truthdig Aug 13, 2008 Early Wednesday morning, Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili agreed to a plan to stop the fighting that flared up Friday. However, the crisis isn't over and the terms of the agreement aren't all clear. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Putin’s Sole

Mike Luckovich / Truthdig Aug 13, 2008 Dig deeper

NATO, Georgia and the Ready-Made War

William Pfaff / Truthdig Aug 13, 2008 British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery was the man who said the first three rules of warfare are "Do not invade Russia," repeated three times. A footnote to that rule would be that while the disputed Georgian districts of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are not parts of Russia today, they were yesterday, and probably will again be tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )