Yeah, you and what army?

That is my guess at Russian Premier Vladimir Putin's reaction to President Bush declaring the Russian incursion into Georgia "unacceptable".

Why did Bush bother? There is nothing the U.S. can do except splutter. Russia and China are in the process of eclipsing the U.S. as the premier powers on the planet.

Two things separate those nations from the rest. The first is oil wealth. They are actively drilling for, pumping and selling every drop of oil they can and they are reaping massive profits which fund their aggressive policies.

Oh, and note to Nancy Pelosi:

While you are over here "saving the planet" from our relatively eco-friendly oil production efforts, the Russians and Chinese are sucking the oil from their parts of the Earth with little regard to damage to the environment. And, since we need oil and we won't produce our own, we are paying them to do it.

The second thing that differentiates Russia and China is their willingness to take action they deem in their interest without any regard to world opinion. I have to laugh at the politicians who criticise the U.S. for "unilateral" policies. Most of the time we have, at least, tried to get international support. The Russians and Chinese couldn't care less about "world opinion" or what the U.N. says.

The Russians are playing the old fashioned power politics game in Georgia. They used the "oppressed minority" rationale for their incursion, but they are now widening their attack. Their goal is to oust the pro-American Georgian President and get a puppet government in place that will play ball with Russia. The Russians don't like the fact that there are oil and gas pipelines through Georgia that allow other former Soviet Republics to transport their oil and gas to the west without going through Russia.

It looks like we will soon be accepting the unacceptable once again.