That’s the way the world – or at least this presidency – ends, not with a bang but a whimper.
The Bush Administration’s incompetency in foreign affairs has reached its apogee with the debacle in Georgia.
Whatever the delicate rights and wrongs of the problematic borders there, and Georgia’s applicatio to join Nato, Bush and Rice’s foreign policy initiatives have been a model of inconsistency. First they encouraged Georgia to be ridiculously adventurous, then they failed to stop them when they overreached, and now all they can do is utter hollow threats at Moscow without any means to back it up..
Theodore Roosevelt’s dictum of talking quietly and carrying a big stick has been reversed:
Shout loudly and carry a wet fish
