While Russia’s bombs rained and its tanks rolled over Georgian soil, much of the world oscillated between shock and bewilderment. Something just didn’t appear to add up. As President Bush pointed out from China, Russia’s response is completely out of proportion to the stakes involved in the Ossetian territorial dispute. By flexing its military muscle in this way, the Kremlin is clearly pursuing some other agenda.

A clue as to what it is happening can be found in an avowal made last month. After Condoleezza Rice had signed an agreement with the Czech Republic to host a radar in the ballistic defense shield, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement which said that Russia “will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods.” Full Piece