Earlier this month, Republic of Georgia President Saakashvili took the same action that any leader would take to hold his country together in the face of what looks suspiciously like a classic Russian infiltration and incitement job, a leftover from the days of Putin's old alma mater, the KGB. Americans cannot imagine having a state try to secede and the severe security problem that would present--even though such a secession by numerous states was brutally--though rightfully-- put down in the American Civil War. Even if Barack Obama were president, if a state tried to secede, he'd send in the troops to keep it from happening bc of the extremely dangerous security risk the renegade state would present to the other US states. In comparison to other leaders' responses to similar situations, Saakashvili's response was a model of restraint. Russia's response to Saakashvili on the other hand was part and parcel of the Russian plan from the very beginning: Step 1-Incite secession in the ethnic minority states as a provocation to Saakashvili, Step 2-Use Saakashvili's response as an excuse to invade. It's a simple two-step, the kind of carefully orchestrated manuever that any veteran of the Cold War could spot from 7,000 miles away. Putin is a devotee of the old USSR and he regularly uses its methods to maintain control of the Russian plutocracy. Meanwhile, the Obama-obsessed and willfully ignorant majority of the American press continues to play games with itself over what is going on in Georgia. While Cindy McCain goes there to distribute food aid to the Georgians in a bid to help bring about a more peaceful future, Michelle Obama rambles on about her past at the Democratic National Convention. We ignore Russia at our peril. What happened to Georgia could easily happen to every one of the former Soviet states and then, my friends, when the Russians are lined up on the borders of Western Europe, will you pay attention then? Have you not noticed that when Russia invaded Georgia, Poland and the Czech Republic stopped dithering about the U.S. missile shield and basically said "Where would you like us to clear a place for you to put it?" and the EU as a whole stopped kvetching completely and complained only that the US hasn't done more. Will you please get your heads out of Obama's butt long enough to notice that the world marches on and while he and Michelle laud their own achievements, waving their Ivy League degrees in our faces, Russia uses our political distraction to further its long held goals?