Matters of Opinion

Today's Buffalo News editorials give President Bush an 'atta president for speaking up for human rights during his visit to China, but express concern for the fact that the United States has little pull it can use to halt the Russian invasion of Georgia.

To say that the punditocracy has Georgia on its mind is probably too flip for the newspaper. But this is the Internet.
Elsewhere:
* An analysis by Associated Press diplomatic correspondent Anne Gearan cuts to the chase: The Russian  Bear is back, and the United States doesn't seem to be able to do much about it. The United States saw trouble coming between Russia and Georgia, a former Soviet republic turned nemesis, but didn't have enough leverage, focus or resolve to intervene.
* The Los Angeles Times triple teams the issue. An editorial urges caution: Some are calling on the United States and NATO for a strong, perhaps military, response. What these hawks seem to have forgotten is that their beaks and talons are as sharp as marbles. Max Boot calls for the U.S. to offer Georgia equipment, if not troops. And Jonah Goldberg says Barack Obama has botched his first almost real 3 a.m. phone call.
* The New York Times says there is plenty of blame to go around for what it calls Russia's War of Ambition: Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, foolishly and tragically baited the Russians — or even more foolishly fell into Moscow’s trap — when he sent his army into the separatist enclave of South Ossetia last week. The Bush administration has alternately egged on Mr. Saakashvili (although apparently not this time) and looked the other way as the Kremlin has bullied and blackmailed its neighbors and its own people.
* The Wall Street Journal says: The farther Russia's tanks roll into Georgia, the more the world is beginning to see the reality of Vladimir Putin's Napoleonic ambitions. ... The West needs to draw a line at Georgia.
* The Washington Post doesn't care for any pro-Russian rationalizations: As the crisis deepened, one could hear in Washington the usual attempts to blame the victim, as if Georgia somehow deserved this fate because its elected government had opted for friendly relations with the West. But gives former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev space to argue that Georgia fired the first shot: To accuse [Russia] of aggression against "small, defenseless Georgia" is not just hypocritical but shows a lack of humanity.
* But The Boston Globe piece by Timothy Snyder may be the most important one. He explains that it's all about oil. The fact that Russia has made its military strong enough for such adventures, in a way it wasn't when Poland stood up and the Berlin Wall fell. The fact that it wants to keep it, and the pipelines to deliver it, is the Kremlin's major motivation for control of what it calls The Near Abroad.

--George Pyle/Editorial Writer