I wonder is there the slimmest of chance to see millions of exalted young people passionately marching for peace in Georgia… It shouldn't be too much of an effort. All they have to do is brush the dust off from the "not in our name", "no blood for oil", "war is not the answer", etc placards, paste Vladimir Putin’s and Dmitri Medvedev’s faces over Bush’s or Blair’s on the "worst ever", "mass murderer" and "real terrorist" placards and voila! ready to march for peace. Preferably in millions, preferably in Moscow, to ram the message through to Putin and Medvedev.

The Russian war aim in Georgia, inasmuch as it may be discerned after a bare 48 hours of full combat, appears to be what I said it likely is: “the Russians [will] fully occupy South Ossetia, along with the other secessionist region of Georgia, Abkhazia; declare them both independent or somehow annexed; and thoroughly punish the Georgians with a countrywide air campaign targeting what meager infrastructure there is.” As if to swiftly confirm the hypothesis, we see today that the Abkhazians have joined the war, thus opening a second front against the Georgians. Quite nearly everything that can go wrong for the Caucasian republic has: Georgian forces have been fully ejected from South Ossetia; Russian troops are landing on the Abkhaz coast (it’s unclear whether at Sukhumi or Ochamchira); Russian air power is hitting strategic targets throughout Georgia; and at this writing — just after dawn in the Caucasus — a general Russian offensive may be underway.

George Handlery about the week that was. A new source of energy has been discovered: harness the hot air of a politician. Paris Hilton gets out of bed to enter politics. Some enemies let you prevail without any friends. Unlike some her opponents, Iran remains consequent. Dictators do not comprehend how freedom works. The difference between 2008 and 1936 is not 72.

The first thing to understand about the war between Russia and Georgia is that Georgia has lost. As Doug Muir explains, seizing South Ossetia required the quick severing, and then holding, of a single key route leading from the Caucasus peaks to the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. A look at the terrain tells the tale: Tskhinvali’s north side is to the mountains, and its south faces toward a broad plain in which the Georgians already controlled the major routes. As an operational problem, the solution was self-evident. Seize the north-south route to Tskhinvali, and the conquest of South Ossetia resolves into an exercise in alpine insurgency – unpleasant but winnable.

Here is a quote by Nicolas Sarkozy from 2006, before he became French President:

[S]ecurity is the responsibility of the State, I am against militias, I am against the private ownership of firearms, and I'm trying to make you think about that. If you are assaulted by an armed burglar, he'll use his weapon more effectively than you anyway so you're risking your life. If the criminal is not armed and you are and you shoot, your life will be ruined, because killing someone over a theft is not in line with the republican values that are mine. The private ownership of firearms is dangerous. I understand your exasperation for having been burglarized two times, I understand the fear that your wife and daughter may have but the answer is in the efficiency of the police and the efficiency of the judiciary process, the answer is not in having guns at home.

Russians are just superb at timing: whenever they do something dastardly, they time it to Friday afternoon when politicians, diplomats and journalist head to the weekend. The attack on Georgia also came at the time, when all the worlds’ attention is on Beijing. Everyone who has paid close attention, however, to the events in Georgia, is shocked, but not surprised.

The death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn produced predictable reactions from Western commentators. Yes, they said, he was a moral giant for so bravely exposing the evils of the Soviet penitential system in The GULag Archipelago; but he later compromised his moral stature by failing to like the West and by becoming a Russian nationalist.
 
A perfect example of this reasoning was Anne Applebaum’s piece in The Guardian. Herself the author of a history of the GULag, she wrote,

In later years, Solzhenitsyn lost some of his stature …thanks to his failure to embrace liberal democracy. He never really liked the west, never really took to free markets or pop culture.

The privilege of knowing those who forged our age is often the consequence of an accidental crossing of the paths. In my case, undeserved luck allowed me to encounter Alexandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (AIS). Already then, the event registered in my consciousness as having a greater significance than what could be guessed at that moment.

My contact with AIS came about by accident. During his exile that began in Zürich – a fate he shared with Lenin – the education of his son Dimitri had to be arranged. I remembered how much the monk Accasius had done for me when, as a “class alien” I had no right to go beyond the 8th grade or to be a straight “A”. To repay the monk I volunteered. As I put it, the task was to bridge the gap between local values and the obligations arising from a Russian background. Nataliya Solzjenitsyn wrote back “she does not find the words,” and accepted the offer. Therefore, briefly, Dimiri became our “nomer tri” – we had two children of our own. Through the boy, I was admitted into the cautiously buttoned up household that knew its KGB. By the way, I considered their physical security to be wanting. Therefore, I suggested that they resettle in the USA. Still, it was not my input that had to do with the move to Vermont where the Solzhenitsyns stayed until they could return to Russia. Early on, with the help of a Czech woman, the KGB infiltrated the household. Clever rumors that his children might be kidnapped were circulated. The Swiss did little to protect the writer besides advising him that in anticipation of arson, he should have buckets of water handy. In the end, the Solzhenitsyns flew out under an assumed name. So as not to alert the KGB, their belongings were left behind in the Stampferstrasse.

George Handlery on the week that was. The visiting kin of dictators are dangerous guests. Russia protects. Inventing the surge retroactively? How to save us from timely success in Iraq? Talk loudly and carry a big toothpick. Wanted: forgers of Zimbabwe dollars.
 
1. There was once a dictator. Luckily he found a country to kidnap. He liked to sit clad in a fantasy costume in a luxury tent and wrote a book. His subjects had to read it. In time a spoiled son was added. Also a lot of money flew in because under the ground there were liquids. Foreigners could find, tap and a use it so that they were eager to buy it. Much money could be piled up: those who have power never forget themselves. The rotten kid (RK) went abroad to spend some dough before it would get mildewed. In the city known for its iron tower he ran into problem when he beat his pregnant wife. The multiculturally insensitive police fined Mr. First Son, a suspended jail term was added and, unimproved, the RK was sent home.

More than 200,000 Germans turned out in Berlin on July 24 to hear a carefully stage-managed Barack Obama tell them exactly what they wanted to hear: If he becomes US president, America will become a whole lot more like Europe.