U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is an intelligent woman. So how can she possibly want to tell the world that Russia's response to the Georgian attack on South Ossetia resembled the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
The comparisons should be the reverse. The Russian willingness to go to the aid of a small region under brutal attack contrasts greatly with the empty Western rhetoric back in the days when Czechoslovakia or other regions were under Moscow attack. And the knee-jerk anti-Russian reactions of the media and other commentators too biased or lazy to question the official U.S. version of events parallels the Russian media's knee-jerk acceptance of Moscow's distorted explanations for past misdemeanors such as Chechnya.
Let's begin with the facts. On the morning of Aug. 8 we woke to reports of a fierce Georgian Army attack on the small town of Tskhinvali, the capital of the small South Ossetia autonomous district within Georgia. Civilian casualties were put in the thousands. As well, 10 or more Russian "peacekeepers," stationed after a previous Georgian attack on South Ossetia in 1991-1992, were killed.