Kristol wants ANOTHER war.

God, it never takes the warmongers very long to start shouting that "something must be done". Kristol is using his column in the New York Times to ask, "Will Russia get Away With It?" Of course, he totally fails to note that actually Georgia was the aggressor here and that Russia have been handed the chance to do something that they have wanted to do for years thanks to Saakashvili's stupidity.

That's not how Bill sees it though:

Will the United States put real pressure on Russia to stop? In a news analysis on Sunday, the New York Times reporter Helene Cooper accurately captured what I gather is the prevailing view in our State Department: “While America considers Georgia its strongest ally in the bloc of former Soviet countries, Washington needs Russia too much on big issues like Iran to risk it all to defend Georgia.”

But Georgia, a nation of about 4.6 million, has had the third-largest military presence — about 2,000 troops — fighting along with U.S. soldiers and marines in Iraq. For this reason alone, we owe Georgia a serious effort to defend its sovereignty. Surely we cannot simply stand by as an autocratic aggressor gobbles up part of — and perhaps destabilizes all of — a friendly democratic nation that we were sponsoring for NATO membership a few months ago.

This is why the neo-cons are so stupid, and why they constantly expect there to be an easy military response to every situation. It's exactly what McCain was spouting as soon as Russia responded to Georgia's action.

The fact that the US is tied up in Afghanistan and Iraq is irrelevant to Bill, as is the thought that Europe is dependent on Russia for oil and gas, so no, he simply wants "something done". Though it's notable that Bill doesn't actually proscribe a plan, he simply berates the rest of us for not having a quick and easy solution to this.

The United States, of course, is not without resources and allies to deal with these problems and threats. But at times we seem oddly timid and uncertain.

The problem is that the United States, thanks to actions which Bill loudly called for and cheered as they were implemented, is without both allies and resources at the moment. All of their resources are tied up in Afghanistan and Iraq and no ally is going to take on Russia for God's sake.

I think the lesson that needs to be learned here is that it is not wise to invite country's to join Nato when the country concerned has a significant portion of it's population seeking autonomy. Especially not when the portion seeking autonomy is seeking to align themselves to a nation as powerful as Russia.

Nato states:

The Parties of NATO agreed that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all. Consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense will assist the Party or Parties being attacked, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

Membership of Nato carries responsibilities for all members and the people of South Ossetia have made clear that they do not want to be part of Georgia. They have even gone to war with Georgia to prevent this. So the Kristols of this world are being foolish to think that we can simply accept Georgia into Nato without this matter being addressed first. The people of South Ossetia carry Russian passports and Russia is always going to intervene if Georgia attempts, as it did over the weekend, to militarily enforce it's will.

Bill is furious that "something isn't being done" and, as always, refuses to see this as a very dangerous situation.

The real lesson is that people like Bill could start wars by seeking to humiliate the Russians by inviting Georgia to join Nato without taking the time to consider the danger of this plan caused by the simple fact that the South Ossetians feel as if they are Russians.

It's ironic that the people who preach the principle of self-determination never think it should be applied if there is an opportunity to humiliate an old rival.

Ironically Putin warned of exactly this when he condemned the decision to recognise Kosovo's independence:

"The precedent of Kosovo is a terrible precedent, which will de facto blow apart the whole system of international relations, developed not over decades, but over centuries," Putin told a Moscow meeting of regional leaders.

"They have not thought through the results of what they are doing.

"At the end of the day it is a two-ended stick and the second end will come back and hit them in the face."

And this is the stick which is currently clubbing the Kristols of this world over the head right now. If Kosovo was allowed to declare independence, why not South Ossetia?

Click title for Bill's crazy talk.

Tags: Bill Kristol, South Ossetia, Russia, Nato