Oil, Democracy, and Russian Tanks in Georgia

The most obvious lesson from these days of fighting is that the U.S. and Russia look at the same events with utterly different emphases and interpretations, whether they’re talking about historical background, diplomatic objectives or even who fired first. One of the reasons for Russia’s current sense of power is the vast wealth it’s accumulating from oil and natural gas. Georgia does not have oil resources of its own, but there is a major pipeline running through it to the Middle East. There also are plans afoot for a pipeline running in the other direction…toward China.