It was only a couple of days ago that President Obama was waxing poetic in Moscow about “resetting” relations with Russia, blah, blah, blah.

The U.S. and Russia must leave "behind the suspicion and the rivalry of the past so that we can advance the interests that we hold in common," Obama said.

"We must lead by example, and that’s what we are doing here today. We resolve to reset U.S.-Russian relations so that we can co-operate more effectively in areas of common interest," he said.

Obama assured Russian President Medvedev that he was willing to negotiate on the planned missile defense system in Poland.

As always, the president was heavy on the pandering:

The U.S. president repeated Washington’s position that the planned system is aimed at intercepting missiles from Iran and has nothing to do with countering "a mighty Russian arsenal."

The problem with Obama’s foreign policy approach is that after the flash bulbs die down, the hand pumping and back slapping finished, reality once again sets in:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned the United States on Friday that if it did not reach agreement with Russia on plans for missile defence systems, Moscow would deploy rockets in an enclave near Poland.

In sharp contrast to his positive words during President Barack Obama’s visit to Moscow earlier this week when the two reached broad agreement on nuclear arms cuts, Medvedev used a news conference at the G8 summit to return to Russia’s earlier tough rhetoric on arms control.

Referring to an order he gave earlier this year to prepare deployment of short-range Russian missiles in the western enclave of Kaliningrad to answer to any U.S. deployment of a missile shield in central Europe, Medvedev said:

"If we don’t manage to agree on the issues, you know the consequences. What I said during my state of the nation address has not been revoked."

…But in Italy on Friday, Medvedev returned to the Kremlin’s traditional posture on the system, describing it as "harmful" and "threatening to Russia".

Obama just doesn’t understand Russia. The Soviet Empire may be over, but the same Commie assholes that were in charge then are in charge now.

Vladimir Putin is an icy KGB boss completely immune to Obama’s charms. It’s true that America doesn’t look at Russia as much of a rival anymore, but that feeling is not mutual.

The Russians don’t view missile defense as a danger to Russia itself, but rather to its “sphere of influence.” In other words, if the USA has a missile defense system in Poland then Russia can no longer threaten its democratic neighbors with missiles.

Russia does everything it can to undermine the young democracies in former Soviet states like Georgia, Ukraine, and Poland. A missile shield protecting those countries would basically de-fang the Russians.

Putin has compared the U.S. missile defense plan in Poland to the Cuban Missile Crisis and vowed to take military action to prevent it.

That argument is laughable on its face. The Soviet’s tried to put nuclear cruise missiles 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

The U.S. missile defense system in Poland will be armed with missiles that contain no warhead or explosives of any kind.

The missile defense works by sending a high-speed projectile to impact the incoming warhead to destroy it.

It would be a disaster for Obama to fold on missile defense and give in to the Russians.

Our allies in the region depend on a strong America to keep the Russians at bay while they attempt to build their democracies and rid themselves of Communism once and for all.

The United States must intervene in the current conflict between Russia and Georgia. We have spent billions training Georgia’s military and have done everything to assist that young democracy. Now in the face of outrageous aggression by Russia, President Bush is going to let that country be destroyed?

If we allow Russia to seize control of Georgia and its valuable oil pipeline then all the President’s talk about spreading freedom and democracy ring hollow. Georgia has been a staunch ally of the U.S. and now their country is being stolen by Russia.

Georgia’s U.S. trained military is vastly superior to Russia’s in terms of training, but with a force of less than 50,000 they are no match for Russia’s 750,000 poorly trained, poorly led, and poorly equipped drunks. The real problem for Georgia is air power. Georgia has no fighter aircraft or attack choppers while Russia has more than 1,200 attack aircraft.

The latest reports out of Georgia are that more than 50 Russian aircraft are flying above Georgia. With no aircraft the only thing the people of Georgia can do is hide.

Georgia had the third largest troop commitment in Iraq behind Great Britain until this week when the Pentagon began flying Georgian troops home to fight the Russians.

Russia’s intention is to seize control of Georgia’s valuable oil pipeline that carries oil to Turkey. It’s the only pipeline in the entire region that the corrupt Russian government doesn’t control — at least not yet.

I understand that we “need” Russia to back us on UN sanctions against Iran, but that rationale is really pretty absurd. The Russians play lip service to President Bush about the need to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, while at the same time building a nuclear reactor for Iran.

The situation is undoubtedly complicated, but what we absolutely must not do is sit around jawboning at the UN forever. The United Nations is one of the most ineffective and corrupt organizations on the planet and what’s worse is that it’s largely funded by us.

Barack Obama’s tepid response in the beginning and the moral equivalency he drew between a democratic ally of the U.S. and Russia speaks volumes about how he would conduct his foreign policy. His call for UN peacekeeping troops is also ridiculous, because if history is any indicator UN peacekeepers are nothing more than props. UN peacekeepers have never ‘kept peace’ anywhere, and as with everything involving the UN it takes years to see a boot hit the ground.

What the U.S. should do is give Russia a simple ultimatum. Either Russia immediately and unconditionally withdraws from Georgia or we will make Ukraine a part of NATO as early as next week.  Russia’s biggest fear is having Ukraine become a part of NATO, and this above all else is our biggest leverage on Russia.

Russia is surrounded by young democracies and if the U.S. allows Russia to topple one democracy it will weaken them all. Georgia has done everything it can to create a free and democratic society after decades of Soviet tyranny.

America has a moral obligation to help its friends when they’re in need, and right now Georgia desperately needs our help.

-Chris Jones