Hard to listen to that kind of thing without downing a few tabs of Tums.

Perhaps McCain doesn't think the United States is a nation, then? Good thing that was made clear before the election.

Come now, apo.

In RedState World, all arguments work only in one direction. What the goose does, the gander can`t, and the shoe is never on the other foot.

Hmmm, let's see: invade Iraq, with a self-appointed dictator with no qualms about WMD use, in violation of numerous ceasefire agreements; invade Afghanistan, which even BHO has said should be the focus of our war on terror compared on equal footing to the Russian invasion of a country with a democratically elected President. Not much grasp on context apparently........

See, apo? As RetMer points out we DIDN`T invade any countries and throw them up against the wall - despite whatever neocons, Rep. politicians or rightwing bloggers might have said about it - rather, we were nobly DEFENDING THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER.

These days, "conservatives" who used to mock Clinton with "wag the dog" claims conveniently think that our "national interest" requires us to go to war against tinpot dictators everywhere, as long as there is a "defense industry" pocket to line and electoral gain from the accompanying jingoism. And while the money is flowing into the right pockets, they never notice that such wars both unnecessarily weaken us and warm the cockles of the more powerful despots who we call our chums.

Wow, I said all that? In fact, if you look closely you'll see I distinctly said "invade Iraq" and "invade Afghanistan"; "DIDN'T" was nowhere in my post. My point concerned the lack of distinction between the Iraq INVASION, essentially a continuation of the first Gulf War for non-compliance (in the US and UK opinion, other countries disagreed) with UN Security Council resolutions (a condition of the cessation of the first Gulf War hostilities) and the Afghanistan INVASION, a country under the Taliban thumb, fellow travelers/supporters of OBL, who killed 3000+ Americans. Perhaps if the Georgians had staged cross-border raids, flown airplanes into buildings, or otherwise killed Russian citizens there would be some equivalency.

We have also attempted to minimize civilian casualties and to better the lives of both countries' citizens. Not a justification to invade and small comfort to innocent casualties, simply a contrast to how Georgia will be left when (and if) the Russians withdraw.

RetMer: In fact, Russia was trying to protect Russian citizens (between 50 and 90% of South Ossetians are Russian passport holders). I haven't seen anything to indicate that Russia's interests in Georgia are any less nefarious than ours are in Iraq.

And if you want to speak about moral equivalency, we can do that too. Count the body bags in Georgia right now, then count them in Iraq; get back to me with the one that you think is worse.