Actual straight talk: you see, it can be done!

Here's some actual straight talk from longtime American foreign affairs analyst William Pfaff on why all this talk about Georgia joining NATO is ridiculously misguided:

With Georgia, we are now proposing to take in countries that were part of historical Russia. And it seems to me that it is an attempt at intimidation to press things this far. I'm sure it is taken that way in Russia.

We're acting as if it's membership in the Lions Club or the Rotary Club. NATO is supposed to be a serious organization that makes a solemn treaty commitment to go to war in defense of its individual members.

NATO is not an organization to promote democracy. NATO is to have democracies in it and to go to war if somebody invades those democracies. But it's not NATO's business to teach democracy. If we had the Warsaw Pct teaching democracy in Mexico or Puerto Rico, I think we would not consider that a friendly development.

Very sound thinking indeed. His closing analogy is imprecise, but the general idea is clear enough. Do the nations of the West really want to commit themselves to a war with Russia over two disputed provinces? Insane.

The full interview, from NPR yesterday, is worth a listen.