I'm definitely not a fan of Pat Buchanan (and even less a friend of Russia), but I have to give him credit here. A friend of mine is an aid worker in South Ossetia and when you listen to her stories, the perspective changes. Georgia started this war with brutal violence and absolutely no respect for civilian lives. Russia had to stop this (as it happened right at its doorsteps, and most of South Ossetia is Russian speaking). Good timing on the side of Georgia as the rest of the world was watching the Olympics and did not pay much attention (all the world leaders being at the opening ceremony).
Russia saw this coming and was prepared to respond, crushing the Georgian army, also with excessive force and without any respect for civilians.
It shows that like in any war, it is always the civilians that suffer.
What we in the west have to learn is to stop being manipulated by the leaders in evil countries who know exactly how to play us. Saakashvili, the Georgian president, is very good at this - sending a hand full of troops to Iraq in order to get blind US support for everything he is doing. He also knows that staying in power is more important to the US administration than the details of who is right or wrong in a corner of the world, where we can't even pronounce the names. And look what it did to McCain's numbers in the polls ? What a coincidence, that Saakashvili had invited Bush and McCain over a few months before starting the war...
Reminds me of the Iran-Iraq war, when Saddam manipulated the West to support him, despite being at least as evil as the other side.
