So after meeting with G.W., Mr Saakashvilli thought he had a good friend who would back him up if he tried to reclaim the breakaway parts of his country. I doubt Bush told the Georgian President to go in there with guns blazing, but Mr Saakashvilli may have thought Bush’s apparent sympathy for his problems meant he had Bush’s approval. When he did, he fell right into Russia’s hands by giving them an excuse to go in and protect their dual citizenship Russians in South Ossetia. Bush is blind to the nuances of diplomacy, and the repercussions keep coming.

My sense is that such serious and ugly accusations deserve to be utterly ignored until such point as there is actual evidence that they occurred. Admin opponents (of every admin) can be relied upon to float damaging innuendo whenever it can be crafted to transmit the odor of plausibility.

Of course it would be ugly if such things were proven. But they haven’t. Let’s not give this any more weight than that granted pure speculation. There’s a very good chance that’s what this is anyway.

Personally, I find the notion absurd. Doesn’t the President have enough to handle without encouraging another armed conflict certain to exacerbate international tensions.