Tonight I watched gw bush give a short speech while at the Olympics while the Russians are invading The Republic of Georgia who had invaded a “disputed” territory that I can’t pronounce or spell the name.  While watching Countdown with Keith Olberman, I saw mccain’s speech (which like all of his speeches tries to suggest that he’s some kind of great foriegn policy expert) where he couldn’t even pronounce the name correctly of the leader of Georgia that he is such a good friend of.  The early reports that I have seen and heard mention that the dead bodies lying in the wake of the Russian advance include several that appear to be from the US.  It is clear, also from the early reporting, that Georgia was empowered by massive infusions of weapons from both the US and Israel.  There have also been reports that there are at least 1000 American “advisors” in Georgia and at least 2500 “mercenaries” (what did you think blackwater was going to do as Iraq winds down – they have to go somewhere) and I don’t even want to guess how much money we, the American taxpayers, are spending in this armament.  Of course, both bush and mccain continue what has become the standard American saber rattling, that threatens the Russians and empoldens the Georgians (who I don’t dispute that we should be standing with – if only because we encouraged them, I’m sure, to start this encounter).  What I find really interesting is that, in my opinion, the rest of the world fully understands that the main “success” of the bush foriegn policy is to render our military virtually helpless in the  face of any situation outside of Iraq and Afganistan – even if our own people don’t understand this.  We have been programmed to think that the great US can solve any problem in the world militarily.  And of course, on many occasions, bush has equated diplomacy with appeasement – so what are the chances he’ll return from the Olympics and try to stop the killing that is happening as I write this in Georgia (and for anyone who doesn’t know, I’m not talking about the state in the southern part of the US – but the breakaway republic that “left” the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s) through diplomacy.  What do you think the main reason we would be allied with the Republic of Georgia?  In my opinion it is the same reason we invaded Iraq, OIL!!!  Does it surprise anyone that our present government would be closely allied with a major oil producer which, if I understand it correctly, has a major oil pipeline running through its country? The area of dispute that the Georgians invaded is, according to what I’ve read, about 80% Russian.  It will be interesting when (and if) all the details come out, who and what was behind this invasion.  The part that really struck me, and I hope strikes many other Americans, is that we are in a pitiful state as the “world’s leader” due to the bush administration’s incredibly boneheaded foriegn policy.  I could go on and on about the failures, both of judgement and strategy, since gw took office, but it is more than pathetic, it is a reflection on every US citizen, and the people of the world (remember we’re now in a world economy whether we like it or not) are holding their breath – as many US citizens, including myself – until this bumbling criminal is out of office (I don’t think they care as much as I do that bush and his cronies are held legally liable for their lawbreaking, they just want this period of US history to be over).  What is scary to me is that there is some remote possibility that mccain could get elected which would be even worse.  Of course he will have the same invisible thugs writing his speeches (it has become apparent to me lately that this process has already begun) and the same criminals in the background directing policy for this country and their corporate cronies who are presently running it.  And don’t kid yourselves, there are many corporate cronies, people who think of nothing but the bottom line, who have a vested interest in keeping bush in power through mccain.  When I read today a report by the Government Accounting Office that fully two thirds of the corporations in this country paid – ZERO – taxes from 1998 through 2005 – I about gagged.  These companies have something like 2.5 trillion dollars (combined) in sales each year and pay nothing in taxes, through generous loopholes provided by our leaders (this has to lean toward republicans, but the reality is they couldn’t do this without democrats as well).  The way I figure it, just a 10% rate would cut the deficit in this country in half – which, of course, is a subject (the deficit) for another day.  I’m trying not to stray here, my point is that there are a lot of people in this country that don’t care about anything more than their bottom line, and they know that if Obama is elected president the free ride will possibly come to an end.  The fact that our foreign policy is such a mess, and mccain will be more of the same, doesn’t matter to them at all.  It seems to me they can’t get enough money – the more they get, the more they want.  Again, my point is that I hope and pray that the American public sees past this deceit.  We can’t afford more of this warmongering by our president, who will portray this as Russian agression, but when the truth comes out, I’m betting that bush and his cronies were right in the thick of encouraging Georgia to invade it’s neighbor that would predictably bring a response from the Russians.  This seems like a stupid miscalculation (does that surprise anyone) by the bush white house, but it also feels like “here we go again!”