Russia still controls all disputed territory with Georgia. The Russians won. Don’t try to spin it into an American victory.
That's like saying WWII was an American defeat because the Russians got to install compliant communist regimes in Central Europe. It's a distinct possibility that Putin was looking to overrun and annex Georgia and Bush stopped him. Only Putin knows for sure. In that event, it was a partial victory for both sides.
Putin stopped. That is the point.
What Bush put into Georgia could not have hoped to stop him at the time. H had the power to roll right over Tiblisi and was pushing towards it to do so. But he knew Bush was serious, and would not let it stand and it would end up costing Putin and Russia too much.
Yes he took those two provinces...I grant that. And they are not going back. And that was a defeat for Georgia and the West.
But he also stopped short of taking the whole nation, and that was because of the things I said. That was a victory and I will sell THAT part of what happened for precisely what it was.
Similarly here in Ukraine. The US and the Ukraine, and Europe or NOT going to get the Crimea back. The Russians have long desired it back, and they in essence controlled it anyway. Now they have it and it is strategic to them.
But we can do things to save the rest of Ukraine...and it is in our interests to do so.
I do not say this because I believe Obama will ever do any such thing. The hard truth is that he himself is an enemy to this nation and desires this nation to humbled and laid low.
But that does not mean we stop talking abut what is right...and what we should do. Obama and his decrepit ilk will not always be there.