What is Really Going On?

The second of three U.S. Navy warships carrying relief supplies to Georgia passed through the Turkish straits.

Coast Guard cutter Dallas entered the Dardanelles as a giant crane unloaded 55 tons of aid from the USS McFaul yesterday for refugees in Batumi, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of another port, Poti, where Russian troops are still present.

This marks the first U.S. maritime humanitarian mission to Georgia since August 8th, when Russia sent forces into Georgia.

Putin's Georgian adventure managed to keep oil prices a little higher, and give McCain a boost in his campaign against Obama. Other than that, the U.S. seems to be taking things in diplomatic stride. At least that's the way things appear on the surface.

Remember columnist Bob Novak? Well, he's still writing. Here's something his column Avoiding a Lieberman Disaster said yesterday:

McCain's top strategists argue that the Bush coalition that won the last two presidential elections is dead and must be replaced by a new one that extends to the left, as Lieberman would. Bush strategists disagree, asserting that McCain is getting around 90 percent of the old Bush vote and can win the election with a few moderates added in.

Novak's insider notes that strategists think Lieberman is a poor VP choice except as McCain's secretary of state.

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M.E. has no prediction on either matter. Simply do not have solid information.

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Before someone asks why the photo of submarine Dallas is posted above, let me say it symbolizes the submarine(s), including non-U.S., now collecting intelligence on Russia's naval movements in the zone.

The West has never been this united against Moscow's aggressive, neo-imperial foreign policy. But this has been building up for years, based largely on the inflammatory rhetoric of Russia's top leaders. Remember, for example, how then-President Vladimir Putin's repeatedly threatened the West with "asymmetric" responses -- for example, aiming the country's missiles at Poland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine in response to NATO expansion and the planned deployment of elements of a U.S. missile-defense system in Europe. In addition, there were those ridiculous media leaks about refueling Russian strategic bombers in Cuba and the threat from a top military leader to deploy Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad region. And don't forget Putin's incendiary speech in Munich in 2007. - The Moscow Times 26 August 2008

Submarines are always silent and strange.