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By Dylan Matthews
In the midst of their current war, it seems average Ossetians and Georgians can agree on one thing: it's the Americans' fault.
Georgians around Gori spoke of America plaintively, uncertainly. They were beginning to feel betrayed.It's hard to overstate what a catastrophe this conflict has been for the Bush administration. The sight of Russia destroying one of the poster nations of the democratization agenda is bad enough, but there are a whole host of other setbacks. As the above article illustrates, the war's brought to the surface existing antipathy among Russians and Ossetians, and provoked a new "stab in the back" narrative among Georgians. It's provided an opportunity for Russia to turn the Kosovo independence precedent against us with regard to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It's disrupted the American NATO expansion strategy, not to mention the administration's missile defense plans. Hell, it promises to reduce the troop presence in Iraq, if only by a percentage point or two. If there's a more humiliating way for the Bush foreign policy record to end, I can't think of it.“Tell your government,” said a man named Truber, fresh from the side of the Tbilisi hospital bed where his son was being treated for combat injuries. “If you had said something stronger, we would not be in this.”
[…]
The Ossetians emerged onto a four-lane highway whose edges had been chopped to pieces by columns of Russian armor. Around them were mountains shrouded by fog.
Tatiana Gobozoyeva was riding in a van with 20 other refugees, many of whom had spent four days huddled in dirty basements. She said she considered the United States responsible for the Georgian aggression.
