Crazy Ivans

Russian czar Vladimir Putin is not a happy man. Whatever he hoped to gain on the international stage from his highly scripted splendid little war in Georgia has not gone quite to plan. Putin now blaming the U.S. presidential candidates, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and the Soul Train Dancers for the Georgia War. Indeed, Russian representative to NATO Dmitri O. Rogozin is equating Sept. 11, 2001, with the start of the Georgia War, Aug, 8, 2008. But Rogozin's bluster may actually be less than is imagined. U.S. Assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs Daniel Fried is making the case that the war is about Russia acting out over its perceived shortcomings rather than the act of a strong nation. In the meantime, France is calling for an emergency EU summit to address the crisis and sanctions are on the table. And while the world deals with Putin's punitive expedition against its neighbor, the real victims, as usual, are likely to be the Russian's themselves.