We thought the Russian/Georgian conflict smelled like a manufactured Russian event from the start.  Russia's semi-resurgence as a world power is driven by fossil fuel revenue.  Certainly they are a regional power, and their contrived invasion of Georgia with obviously pre-staged large quantities of military assets shows that Russia was at the ready to apply overwhelming force against a small Democracy sitting at it's doorstep.  Let's make this perfectly clear:  Whatever you call Russia, a Democracy it isn't.  And true to it's history, Russia is run by a cloaked Czar with broad sociopathic streak.  Thus, right off the bat, when you hear Putin decrying "ethnic cleansing" and other claimed human atrocities as excuse for war, you know there is a dead rotting fish about stinking up the place.  Russia doesn't give a damn about human suffering, and very rarely in it's history has it ever given a damn about human suffering.

We have been surfing around for what the real story is, because it was obvious, at least to us, that Russia was prepped and ready to go for a fight.  Of all the articles we've read on this mini-war, this article from the Eurasia Daily Monitor published by The Jamestown Foundation seems to us the most lucid.

The key issue for Mother Russia is that Georgia is a United States ally, and has been trying to enter NATO for some time.  Russia regards Georgia's entrance into NATO as a threat.  It knows that if it can keep Georgia unstable, NATO will never allow entry.

A secondary issue, which has been written of elsewhere, is that Georgia just so happens to have a strategic geographic location on the Caspian Sea as it relates to the much discussed oil pipeline.  This pipeline is important to Europe.  He who controls the oil, controls the region.  Those lazy, snoozing EU types had best wake up to this fact.

Why should all this concern The Stupid Nation?  On this side of the world we are still grappling with an energy supply crisis.  The Democrats have thus far steadfastly blocked legislation to explore for new sources of domestic oil supply.  The twisted rationale there is that by not providing new sources of energy, this will somehow help us domestic oil junkies off the addiction in some pseudo-fantasy cold-turkey habit kick.  Never mind the economic havoc, and as "Captain Nemo" pointed out in the previous post - never mind that the poor in this country are getting crushed by the high cost of fuel, and the high cost of food being driven by the cost of fuel. 

The salient point - yet another malevolent power rises on the black gold beneath their feet.  Without it, they are nothing. 

And if we don't start locating new supplies of domestic oil as part of a comprehensive plan to wean us off foreign supplies of energy, sooner or later somebody, or a group of somebodies, is going to directly put the knife to our throat.  Whether that fait accompli is whimpering capitulation (the Democrat version), or World War III (the Republican version) is anyone's guess.

The conflict between tiny Democratic Georgia and Stalinist nostalgic Russia should be a stark reminder that we must get maximally aggressive at developing a comprehensive energy policy that includes drilling for more fossil fuel supplies while developing the full range of alternate energy technologies.  Our cash is making our enemies rich, powerful, and brazen while we get poorer and weaker. 

It's a chilling stark warning of things to come, if we do nothing.