Bush is a master poker player. He has the ability to compartmentalize and so he is having fun in China, but I knew that Cheney and Gates were quiet and thinking of a response. Bush public behavior is not a good signal since he plays it so well with his poker behavior,

The obvious method is to put pressure on Turkey since they are a NATO ally and the problems going to come across their border if they don’t. Plus they lose the revenue if Russia gets control of the BZC pipeline.

Cheney is Darth Vader when he says we are going to bomb, he is believed. I suspect that a naval presence outside the Straits of Bosphorus will deliver the message and over flight from Turkey to shut down Russian bombers. But we have to get permission from Turkey first. Cheney will probably need to do that since he has the ability to force countries into agreement. No one else quite has that ability.

I never forgot when he said to Pakistan after 9/11 that if they did not help they were going to regret it and he was implying nukes. Pakistani understood. Either they were an ally or an enemy.