Russian tanks rolled into Georgia and the earth moved on its axis so President Bush scowled real mean at Vladimir Putin during the Olympics then dispatched Condi Rice to give Putin his comeuppance. She didn’t scowl, she sniffed, and said, “The Russians are losing their credibility.”

Credibility, I’d say, is just what the Russians are gaining a lot of.

Why didn’t Condi just hit him over the head with her purse?

We’re in a mess – President Bush has spent six years not winning a third-rate war and now – immediately, yesterday – we want out of Iraq, so what are the chances the American people are going to rise up in a unified tide of outrage to fight a real war with a real army in Georgia?

None.

And Putin knows it.

So, without blinking, he signs a cease-fire. Promises to withdraw. And the next day moves a Russian armored column to the Black Sea coast and blows up a Georgian destroyer – to give us another dose of reality.

It’s not Putin’s credibility that’s shot.

It’s ours.

And about the only thing to stop him gobbling up six more Georgias is just how much he thinks he can digest.

We’ve bungled the war in Iraq and our chickens have come home to roost in Georgia.

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