The president of Estonia is home but had this to say today -
2 NJ children reunited with dad in Georgia
By GEOFF MULVIHILL – 7 minutes ago
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) — Two little girls from New Jersey have been reunited with their father after being trapped by violence in the Republic of Georgia for two weeks.
They arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi (tuh-BLEE'-see) after a six-hour ride with French Ambassador Eric Fournier. They were greeted with McDonald's Happy Meals and cake.
And my translator, whose husband works for Georgia’s ministry of foreign affairs, made a similar guess that the West helped save the capital. “The night they came close to Tbilisi,” she said, “Bush and McCain made their strongest speeches yet. The Russians seemed to back down. Bush and McCain have been very good for us.”
Two points on this one. 1) I'm very grateful that both Bush and McCain have been strong in their public speech. It doesn't make as much difference as strong action, but it does make a difference.
2) IMO it was useful in backing up the extremely inspirational action of the five Presidents, but it was the five Presidents who saved the day.
A small but very revealing item in the article: From most of the houses they are taking everything. They are stealing everything, even such things as toothbrushes and toilets. They are taking the toilets. Imagine. They are taking broken refrigerators.”
Oh boy, what that tells us about life in Russia even in 2008! They have to steal toothbrushes. Toilets. BROKEN appliances. I thought Russia had made great strides--apparently it was only KGB and mafiya thugs (same thing) who profited. Russia remains a broken down crap hole.