The cowardice of the West enabled Russia's brutality

Abraham Lincoln said that the United States would be defeated, if defeat came, not from without but from within. I think this can be expanded to include the entire West. We will be defeated not from without, but from within. The conflict in Georgia, and the months and years that led up to it, has been a disgusting display of Western weakness, naivete, pusillanimity, cowardice, and appeasement.

Schroeder says that the conflict is Saakashvili's fault. A greater insanity has never come out of that traitor's mouth. He, along with Chirac, and now Merkel and Sarkozy, bear much of the responsibility for the ravaging of Georgia. In April, France and Germany (and others) denied Georgia the NATO Membership Action Plan. As Saakashvili correctly said, Russia perceived this as the new Munich. There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that Putin would have initiated this conflict had Georgia been given the plan.

They did this because they knew they could get away with it. After years of accommodation and appeasement, none of our words mattered to them. They ignored our calls for an end to the conflict. They have strutted around Georgia for a week, doing as they please. They threatened Poland with nuclear attack. They know that we are weak. The United States alone cannot isolate Russia; with the existing institutions, only a united West can do this. There was and is a chance for us to turn the tables on Russia and turn this military 'adventure' into a large strategic blunder, but only if we are united and take the necessary steps. I do not see this happening.

Merkel said on Friday that Russia's actions were "disproportionate in some aspects."

This is an appalling statement that reflects either a vast misunderstanding of the conflict, or the reality of a nation utterly beholden to Russian energy supplies. I think the latter.

The reality is that there wasn't much we could do after the invasion started, although we certainly could have been tougher. The tragedy of Georgia is that we didn't have the courage and strength to prevent the conflict months ago, when we had the chance. We were like the Republicans trying to regain their values six months before the election, after eight years of pigging out at the trough; we tried to get Russia to respect our wishes after eight years of appeasement and accommodation. It doesn't work that way, folks.

Will Russia lose, in the end? Yes. But if we keep on this same course, it will be many years from now indeed. France and Germany have blood on their hands, Georgian blood. Perhaps they will reconsider their opposition to Georgian NATO membership.