Clear and present danger

Russia’s actions in the past week should not have taken anyone by surprise. The fact that they did illustrates just how gravely in denial the free world now is about the threats that it faces. Before 9/11, all too few people could imagine a terrorist attack on a Western city killing thousands — even though Osama bin Laden had declared war on the United States in 1996. In much the same way, too few contemplated the bloody reality of Russian tanks rolling across an internationally recognised border, despite the clear signals sent by Vladimir Putin’s increasingly bellicose actions in recent years.

The Russian propaganda machine and its useful idiots have been busy claiming that Georgia was the aggressor, and that Russia was only acting to protect the people of South Ossetia. Let us be clear: South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist enclave, have a right to self-determination. But it is as naive to accept that Russia’s actions were driven by concern for the people of these regions as it is to think that al-Qa’eda is primarily motivated by the absence of a Palestinian state.