From the Washington Post:
Yesterday, pressed by the Bush administration, Georgia allowed the Russian officers to return home. But Russia continued its bellicose acts, while improbably claiming that it -- and not the poor nation of 5 million it is besieging -- is the victim of aggression. In a telephone conversation, Mr. Putin told President Bush that "it was unacceptable for other countries to take steps that Georgia could interpret as support," according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.Mr. Bush ought to reject that imperious warning. U.S. diplomats in fact have spent the past several days urging compromise and caution on the part of Georgia's sometimes impulsive president, Mikheil Saakashvili. But the United States has not only the right but also the duty to support Georgia's independence and Mr. Saakashvili's aspirations to consolidate liberal democracy and steer his country toward membership in NATO. As the Georgian president rightly said yesterday, "The message to Russia is: 'Enough is enough.' "
