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It was a approximate to perfect laboratory criterion — the sort that actually being life rarely provides until it's too late — for by what means the two nominees because of president would respond to an international emergency. (It also tested the current president — more on that in a moment.) Sen. Obama flunked. His first reply was to urge restraint upon "both sides" — that is upon the rapist and the french turnip victim.

A couple of days later, Obama strengthened his condemnation of the Russians (and withdrew his slight rebuke to the Georgians), but then betrayed the soft, unsatisfactory reflexes that characterize the leftist side-piece of the Democratic Party to what one. he belongs. The rejoin to this obstreperous and brutal violation of Georgian sovereignty was to — anyone? — alert the United Nations. "The United States, Europe and all other concerned countries mouldiness stand united in condemning this aggression, and seeking a peaceful resolution to this push," Obama said in a statement. "We should continue to push for a United Nations Security Council Resolution avocation because an immediate end to the violence. This is a clear violation of the sovereignty and internationally recognized borders of Georgia — the U.N. must admit up for the sovereignty of its members, and peace in the world." Well, yes, and lions should lie down with lambs, but back in the real globe, the United Nations has never been able to stop a conflict the parties did not wish to suspend. And because Russia holds a veto, no resolution from the Security Council would be possible. As Claudia Rosett of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies put it: "U.N. mediators can't even protect the dissident monks of Burma or the opposition in Zimbabwe, let alone a small country trying to try the fortune of arms off unassisted an invasion by the Russian army."

Sen. McCain's response was again muscular. He condemned Russia and urged her to "immediately and unconditionally cease … military operations and withdraw altogether forces from highest Georgian quarter … The consequences of Euro-Atlantic permanence and security are grave." McCain urged the U.N. Security Council to happen upon on the matter, still strengthened the point by adding that the "US should immediately act with the E.U. and the OSCE to oblige diplomatic pressure on Russia to misfortune this perilous course that it has chosen," and, "We should immediately call a convention of the North Atlantic Council to assess Georgia's security and review measures NATO can take to contribute to stabilizing this very dangerous situation." Later, McCain also urged that the U.S. convene "an emergency meeting of the G-7 strange ministers" and offered the view that Russia was seeking more than the independence of South Ossetia, but was in lieu looking to overthrow the democratically elected government of Mikheil Saakashvili. His use of the dub G-7 was significant, since it presaged his later call to whirl Russia out of the group that has become the G-8. Noting that Georgia is home to the only oil pipeline that feeds Caspian oil to the west exterior of Russian territory or control, he warned, "We must remind Russia's leaders that the benefits they enjoy from being part of the civilized world require their respect for the values, stability and peace of that world."

President Bush was slow right side the mark. The image of him chatting up Vladimir Putin in Beijing while Russian tanks were crashing into Georgia (population 4.5 million) was not helpful. Perhaps President Bush has a dilatory blend. It required a day or two for him to procure his footing later Sept. 11. But now, finally, he has decided to send Condoleezza Rice to confer with Nicolas Sarkozy and afterward on to Tbilisi to show the flag. The humanitarian airlift, with its clear echoes of the Berlin airlift of 1948, is a bracing substantive and public relations move.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Russians are permitting their Ossetian allies to burn villages, loot, and rob. The Russian soldiers are helping themselves as well. "The whole city is full of marauders," said one eyewitness who fled Gori. "Who in the globe is going to help us?" wailed undivided distraught woman, who then answered her own question by sobbing, "Nobody cares."

Americans had already expressed misgivings about Barack Obama's preparedness for the rude world we inhabit. This laboratory test be able to only increase that anxiety.

To discover at a loss more relative to Mona Charen and learned features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, go to see the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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