WHO WILL STOP RUSSIA?

The USA? With an American president who thinks the Russian prime minister is his buddy, an American military already stretched beyound capacity in its multi-front war on terrorism and a European Union relying on France to broker peace, the answer is, "No one."

Russia is claiming its troops in Ossetia are peacekeepers. The Russian government is making the case to the world that it is in South Ossetia in the role of peacekeepers defending an autonomous state filled with citizens who hold Russian passports who were attacked by the Republic of Georgia two days before Russia sent those peacekeepers in.

Anyone who doesn't see a comparison betwee Russia and Nazi Germany of the 1930s is holding a white cane or using a guide dog. With Russia's apparent quick success against the former Soviet state of Georgia, with its American trained and equipped Army, other former Soviet satellites and their neighbors must be waiting for more shoes to drop.

The world has only Georgia to blame because it started the whole ball rolling last Wednesday when it sent troops into South Ossetia in the first place, giving Russia all the excuse it needed to put Georgia in its place. If Georgia fails to obtain military support from NATO (and time is rapidly running out) which it was close to becoming a member of, Russia will take that as a sign that other former states who continue to receive aid from or are sympathetic toward the USA, can expect the same treatment it is now handing Georgia.

In a very real way, the globe is closer to a world war than it has been in 65 years.