John Derbyshire

August 14, 2008

After some gratuitous insults against Russians in general, Ralph Peters declares Vladimir Putin a “genius”:

Not a single free-world leader currently in office can measure up to Czar Vladimir the Great ? As a former intelligence officer, I’m awe-struck by the genius with which Putin assessed the strategic environment on the eve of his carefully scripted invasion of Georgia. With his old KGB skills showing (he must’ve been a formidable operative), Putin not only sized up President Bush humiliatingly well, but precisely anticipated Europe’s nonreaction ? while taking a perfect-fit measure of Georgia’s mercurial president ?

[Editor: It’s another case of Putin Derangement Syndrom]:

The sad thing is, Putin didn’t need to be that much of a genius, given the feebleness of his opponents. He took a quick glance at the Europeans, with their unionized, gay-friendly armies and their groveling accommodations to Muslim invaders, and dismissed them from his mind. He looked a little longer at America’s leaders, saw how they had dedicated all their national wealth and strength to propping up cynical gangs of bazaar carpet-sellers in Baghdad and Kabul, listened to their infantile babbling about “ridding the world of evil” and “spreading democracy,” heard the clink of devaluing dollars ? and dismissed America from his mind. It doesn’t take a genius to recognize a fool.

Now I see our president has warned Putin that he is sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi “to demonstrate our solidarity with the Georgian people.” Well, if they’ve stopped rolling around laughing in the Kremlin yet, that should get them started again. I hope Condi doesn’t get stuck in a traffic jam behind one of those lines of trucks shipping Georgian politicians off to Siberia.

When did we last have an artful foreign policy? These guys are playing chess (which ? Ralph Peters please note ? Russians are awfully good at). We’re playing checkers. Badly.

Another headline here says, “Bush Squares Up to Putin.” Are they kidding? Get a bucket, someone’s going to need to collect the pieces.