Here's a terrific piece, measured and astute, by Soli Ozel of Istanbul Bilgi University that just went up at PostGlobal, the Washington Post's international affairs site. Money quote one:
I support the independence of Kosovo. I find the Russian assault against Georgia illegal and disproportionate and I think the Kremlin's regime is brutal. But then again, would anyone take seriously Paris, whose complicity in the Rwandan genocide was recently reiterated, or Washington, which invaded a country (illegally and illegitimately by the judgment of most of the world) and made torture legal, when they accuse Russia of anything? So for every country that wants to contain Russia you may find one or two that see it as a counterweight to the United States and a good response to Western conceit. What I am getting at is the question of legitimacy.
Money quote two:
Arguably the American moment in the Caucasus is gone. It is time to go back to the drawing board; to come up with a new policy that will speak to the Russians' better natures and bring them closer to Western policies, even if they are unlikely to become model democrats in the immediate future.
No, we aren't quite all Georgians now, John.
