If you want a real eye-opener, do an internet search on the background of a group called the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (they used to be called the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, and I suspect they changed the name when they started to get some unfavorable attention after the Beslan massacre). ACPC has actually sided with the Chechen separatists against the Russian government, and the group's membership list includes a bunch of familiar names from various positions of influence in and out of the U.S. government over the last 10-15 years.
Elliott Abrams
Kenneth Adelman
Bulent Ali-Reza
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Eliot Cohen
Midge Decter
Geraldine A. Ferraro
Frank Gaffney
Richard Gere
Douglas Ginsburg
Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
Robert Kagan
Max M. Kampelman
Thomas Kean
William Kristol
Michael A. Ledeen
Robert McFarlane
William Odom
P.J. O'Rourke
Richard Perle
Richard Pipes
Norman Podhoretz
Stephen J. Solarz
George Weigel
Caspar Weinberger
R. James Woolsey
AFAICS, the majority of the names on that list are unrepentant Leftists/Socialists. It’s hardly fair for Putin to come down hard on the GWB White House for the activities of a meddlesome group of has-beens, if that’s what he’s doing.
With the exception of Perle, a singularly distinguished and impressive list of “members”. How do we join up?