Georgia, One Year Later

Some three or four days into Russia's invasion of Georgia--exactly a year ago--I made it to Tblisi, dumped my bags, and was soon in a car heading toward the front with two Georgian friends. Russian tanks had already burst out of South Ossetia into Georgian-held territory and occupied Gori, Stalin's birthplace, about an hour north of Tbilisi. The Bush administration, bogged down in two wars and strategically dependent on Vladimir Putin's goodwill, choked and froze. Russian tanks rolled on.