McCain Says We're All Georgians

Update: Sarkozy appears to have been successful in getting both sides to halt the use of military force. 

McCain, by the way, has been butchering the Georgian president's name for days. More Bush! 

McCain apparently held a town hall today and used the conflict to boost his war credentials. To me, all of this illustrates the need for diplomatic relations, not war. Pitting good against evil is too black and white and ignorant if you ask me. But what do I know. Here's someone who says McCain is clueless.

MSNBC: Using the Georgian president's nickname -- although mispronouncing his last name -- McCain said he spoke with President "Misha" Saakashvili today and reassured him that "the thoughts and the prayers and support of the American people are with that brave little nation as they struggle for their freedom and independence."

"And he wanted me to say thank you to you, to give you his heartfelt thanks for the support of the American people for this tiny little democracy far away from the United States of America," McCain said of his conversation with Saakashvili. "And I told him that I know I speak for every American when I say to him, 'Today we are all Georgians.'"

There is so much conflicting information out about who started what but McCain just can't stop himself. While he finds it easy to poke at Russia, people die. It's a good thing France's president Nicolas Sarkozy has taken the lead on this:

AFP: Efforts to find a diplomatic way out of the crisis were led Tuesday by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who travelled to Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart about a European proposed peace plan.

Sarkozy told Medvedev his announced ceasefire was "good news" but that it had to be implemented.

Russia and France agreed on the need for international talks on the future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as one of six principles for ending the conflict, Medvedev said after his talks with Sarkozy, who is now in Tbilisi to meet with the Georgian side.

A story in Newsweek says the West can share blame:

There is no excusing Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion of Georgia (yes, it was Putin; Dmitri Medvedev has been the president since May, but it was now-Prime Minister Putin who flew to a border staging area to confer with Russian generals). Still, we ought to try to understand what is motivating Putin and his fellow Russian revanchists. And, as the West confronts its own weakness in response—Putin well knows that NATO is bogged down in Afghanistan, America is stretched thin in Iraq and Europe depends on his energy lifeline—we should acknowledge that at least some of the blame lies, as it does so often, with our own hubris. Since the cold war ended, the United States has been pushing the buttons of Russian frustration and paranoia by moving ever further into Moscow's former sphere of influence. And we have rarely stopped to consider whether we were overreaching, even as evidence mounted that the patience of a wealthier and more assertive Russia was wearing very thin.