Wretchard,

The Left in Europe and North America continues to side with Russia on this one, even continuing to show willful credulousness. I see it in some pundits’ and journalists’ interpretations of events. In the weblog world we continue to see a significant showing of people, who we can tell are not Russian disinformation agents, who still say that Georgia deserves this and Russia is right to defend its interests in the region.

The fact of a “cease fire” that never existed matters not a whit to them.

Putin sees how much of this is happening in the West. And he makes the correct assessment that his view of us as “weak” has been borne out by events and our reactions to them.