Russia versus Georgia? That's a hockey game, right?

James Lileks wonders at the lack of attention paid to the war that has broken out between Russia and Georgia:

The Georgian situation is complicated, granted, but you'd think someone would be planning a protest. After all, it's war. War is bad. Something must be done. Well, the World Socialists have thought long and deep and hard, and concluded the enemy is the United States:

Underlying the military confrontation is US imperialism's drive to isolate Russia and establish American hegemony over the energy resources of Central Asia and their transit routes through the Caucasus, utilizing the Saakashvili regime as its cat's paw. The Russian ruling elite, for its part, is seeking to reassert its control over a region that was ruled by Moscow for two centuries before the break-up of the USSR.

No protests, no marches in the street, then; Moscow has dibs.

Exactly. From the point of view of the folks who protest against every sneeze by the various military forces of the west, this isn't an issue of concern.

Russia gets a pass. People are scared of Russia. Besides, you have to consider this in the context of history's historical context. And if Russia reabsorbs Georgia, and takes control of its energy resources, well, it has less to do with resurgent fascistic opportunism or oil, and more to do with the rich, complicated history of the region that goes back to the time of Tsars and long beards and black-and-white photos. So! Nevermind. Next item on the agenda: Israel's threats to knock out the military equipment Russia sold to Iran. Let us craft a statement that uses "Danzig" and "blitzkrieg," but not in the same sentence. Draw out the implication over several paragraphs.

So what if it's a classic confrontation between a former superpower and a country with a population about the same size as the GTA, and a military that — just based on Russian forces in the immediate area — is outnumbered by more than 3:1.