The difference between Neo-Cons and the Kremlin
The former are stupid and dangerous, the latter are clever and dangerous...

I'm commenting on this because I'm watching a faux-objective point-counterpoint exchange on PBS's News Hour between neo-con Fred Kagan and some token liberal about the crisis in Georgia. Kagan's record of stupidly belligerent ignorance posing as tough-guy realism would, in a better world, disbar him from the ranks of public commentary. But once you're a member of the club, you stay - no matter how wrong or clueless you are.

Unless, of course, you opposed the war in Iraq in 2002 or 2003. Then you're persona non grata on the public airwaves. Any other deviations from the Beltway consensus will be dealt with in the same way.

And while we're on that subject, let me just point out that the News Hour is really no different from the other network news - except that they're a half hour longer. Just because they're a little less superficial doesn't make them substantively better. They're just presenting a kindler, gentler version of said Beltway consensus. And that consensus, by its very nature, favors a parochial, status-quo, conservative view of the world. So what you're getting isn't news in the sense that what is being presented is designed to inform you about what's really going on in the world. Instead, it's a narrative that picks and chooses from current events in a way designed to tacitly reinforce an already agreed-upon worldview. Whether you choose to consider this as mythology or propaganda is a matter of personal taste. But it's not news.

Back to the real world...

There's no doubt Russia has been on a path to reestablish their traditional borders and spheres of influence for some time now - from the cyber-attacks on Estonia to the energy exortion of the Ukraine and now to the de facto occupation of Georgia. But the Bush administration's combination of total inattention with occasional bouts of feckless belligerence is probably the worst possible way to deal with Russia's ambitions. Urging Georgia to poke the bear with a sharp stick has obviously backfired badly. And that's par for the course with these guys - there's no situation that they can't make worse.

And they've still got 5 more months - plenty of time to really screw up again. But don't count on learning about it on the news until after it's already happened.