Reply #2: Honestly, it seems to me they could give a shit about foreign policy or future implications.

[tom_paine]

The same way Iraq has damaged and weakened this nation in almost every way imaginable yet it has strengthened the Bushies in equal measure.

What seems to us to be bumbling is, I think, indifference or calculation.

Just like their "mishandling" of Katrina hurt them in the short-term but will turn Lousiana from a purple to a solid red state for them in the long run.

They just don't give a shit. McCain needs a boost. He needs the fear ratcheted up. I am sure there are other reasons at work here too, such as Caspian Oil, but this one aspect is paramount, or among the most paramount, I believe.

Besides, as we all know by now, the REALITY of a situation has NOTHING to do with what the American Subject Populace gets through their/our TVs. Our National Delusion is complete, so it doesn't matter that reality is exactly what you say it is.

In Totalitarian Nations, even "kinder and gentler" Inverted Totalitarianisms like our Empire, reality has very little to do with the National Dialogue.

Whatever the ACTUAL long-term outcome of the S. Ossetia Conflict, the value to the Bushies is the Cold War Bushiganda, the National Security Bushiganda, and the Fear Bushiganda...all statistical, psychologically and focus-tested winners...in a nation with no Free Press and no real Opposition Party, like our Empire.

Mission accomplished, whatever happens in the Reality-Based Community has little effect on the National mind of the Amerikan Empire and we, it's Subject Populace.