No longer an army of abused draftees, the Russian Federation now fields an army of abused professionals. But in Russia, it’s considered good work so they have the pick of the litter.

As for the performance of the Georgians — was there a disinformation campaign pumping them up? All those destroyed armored vehicles someone alluded to? Not that I gave it much credence. We’ll find out over the next few weeks.

I think the US saw this coming. A dozen Colonels ain’t going to have much of a career if they missed this. As for the CIA and State, if they took a break spying on the Bush administration they may have seen it, too (and prepared press releases blaming Bush.) In fact, I can’t see the Georgians missing it. They may have a small intelligence service, but we know where its focus is.