United States

Oh, for the love of God. 

 MOSCOW — As Russia struggled to rally international support for its military action in Georgia, Vladimir V. Putin, the country’s paramount leader, lashed out at the United States on Thursday, contending that the White House may have orchestrated the conflict to benefit one of the candidates in the American presidential election.

Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, seen during his interview with CNN in Sochi, Russia's Black Sea resort. Mr. Putin has suggested the United States pushed Georgia toward war and said he suspects a connection to the American presidential campaign.

Mr. Putin’s comments in a television interview, his most extensive to date on Russia’s decision to send troops into Georgia earlier this month, sought to present the military operation as a response to brazen, cold war-style provocations by the United States. In tones that seemed alternately angry and mischievous, he suggested that the Bush administration may have tried to create a crisis that would influence American voters in the choice of a successor to President Bush.

“The suspicion would arise that someone in the United States created this conflict on purpose to stir up the situation and to create an advantage for one of the candidates in the competitive race for the presidency in the United States,” Mr. Putin said in an interview with CNN.

He added, “They needed a small victorious war.”

Oh, but wait, it gets better...

{...}“We have serious reasons to believe that directly, in the combat zone, citizens of the United States were present.”

“If the facts are confirmed,” he added, “that United States citizens were present in the combat zone, that means only one thing — that they could be there only on the direct instruction of their leadership. And if this is so, then it means that American citizens are in the combat zone, performing their duties, and they can only do that following a direct order from their leader, and not on their own initiative.”{...}

{my emphasis}

Is he serious?  Does he really think this crap is going to play?  Nobody's getting behind the Russians---well, no one who could claim respectability---and their actions in Georgia.  So, it would seem the next logical move, according to Vlad's playbook, is to blame it on the US and the evil imperialist, George W. Bush.  After all, everyone HATES the US.  Why wouldn't the US have started a war in Georgia?  We're evil!  It's something Bush would totally do: start a war to win an election.  He did it with Iraq---why wouldn't he with Georgia?

If anyone in the UN buys this line, I swear to God, we should, as I've said before, ship in mounds of the finest cheese, and when the lactose intolerance kicks in, a highly trained spy should light a match and send that stupid place to the sky.