Condi Does Georgia

George W Bush's secretary of state has issued an oracular warning about co-operating with Russia. The Russian bear is "quite ill-tempered", as may be seen from its decision to recognise as independent two provinces which broke away from Georgia. This is because Georgia is not Serbia, and also because South Ossetians are not Turkish Kurds, and the fact that Russia is not America may have something to do with it as well. With the sturdy grip on reality that befits a member of the Bush administration, Condi also said that the Russian invasion had "turned out badly for Russia, very badly" because the Russians did not bring down the Georgian government. Possibly the Russians had observed someone else's attempt at regime change and decided it might not be worth the bother. They also "managed to increase international support for Georgia, not decrease it", the word international here having its usual White House connotation of US-plus-little-helper. In the interests of world peace, the US has called for Ukraine and Georgia to "modernise their armed forces" so that Russian security concerns can be properly addressed, and to "develop stronger democratic institutions", like Uzbekistan's, for instance.

Condi has tactfully decided to curtail the embarrassment of her fellow delegates at the NATO session, and to use the time for a trip to India, which is joining Pakistan in another demonstration of the peace-keeping power of a nuclear deterrent.