Pot, Meet Kettle

President Bush, little more than an hour after returning to Washington from the Olympics in Beijing, bluntly warned Russia that its military operations were damaging its reputation and were "unacceptable in the 21st century."

Well, if there is one thing Bush should have learned (but hasn't) is about how military operations can damage a nation's reputation. You can bet your ass that the Russians have lost no time in pointing out the hypocrisy of the Bush Administration on this issue, an administration that, for many years, opted for military solutions as a first choice.

The Myanmar Junta tortures and imprisons Buddhist monks without any due process and when called to account for that by the Bush Administration, says: "You do the same things."

And now the Russians say the same.

I cannot, in good conscience, entirely lay the blame on George Bush, for it was Bill Clinton who opted for a sustained aerial bombardment of Serbia to get the Serbs to let rebellious provinces go. That was for good reasons, but the precedent was still set. If you were to read some of the stories on Pravda, you would see that the Russians are alleging a bunch of atrocities by the Georgians. They may be true, they are likely not, but those are the stories the Russians are telling their people.

As Bush told stories to the American people.

Pot, meet kettle.