Actually, the end of history, or the prospect of it, may be the reason why the US is not being a great deal more aggressive over the Georgia situation.

Why is that? Because the end of history is actually a threat, rather than a hope. Not the end of history described by Fukayama, but the end of history described by Kahn, Sagan and others – the end of history that comes after, in Sagan’s words, “World War II once a second for the length of a lazy afternoon”; the end of history that comes to an Earth shrouded in clouds that make high noon as black as midnight; an Earth turned into a burned, blasted, radioactive snowball where nothing above the level of insects can survive, and not many of them.

There are still 30,000 or more nuclear weapons on Earth, still sitting in their submarine missile tubes, silos and bunkers. Above all else, we must keep them there. Provoking Russia is not a way to do that.