Georgia Invasion another American Intelligence Failure

With all the hoopla at the Beijing Olympics, both press and public have missed one big issue. While we watched President Bush playing volleyball with bikini-wearing Olympians and posing for pictures with vacationing Americans, Russia invaded Georgia.

Why has no one asked why America again got caught flat-footed, with no forewarning and with the President out of town, when Russian tanks rolled into Georgia? During the first hours of the Russian invasion, the President was interviewed entertaining himself in China. There seemed to be no emergency, no hurry, no announcement from the White House, and no urgency to return home to consult with his military or intelligence chiefs.

By the time Bush got back to the United States, the Russian invasion was already a rout, making our technical assistance and miliary training of Georgian troops look pretty ineffective. Then we witnessed a shaking and nervous President delivering his first real denouncing of the Russian move outside the White House and a grim Secretary of State being sent flying off to meet with the President of Georgia to "negotiate a cease fire" the Russians had no intention of honoring.

It would seem that Russia's intrigues to re-establish its hegemony in the old Soviet Republics is by far the worst threat to America, yet Bush continues to tie up all the American military machine in chasing Taliban in Afghanistan and keeping a quarter million troops and supply personnel tied down in an endless war in Iraq. We have been left by these bankrupt policies without any options when some new front opens up. And this is a WAR president? For a War President, Bush has a habit of getting caught with his pants down in emergencies.

You've got to wonder how this government keeps its supporters with policies like this. Bush and American Intelligence (and intelligence) must be the laughing stock of Russia these days.

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