I have a piece up at The Weekly Standard (neocon alert!) on why the crisis in the Caucasus may not be as dire as it appears:

A crucial aspect of this whole affair is that his pro-American orientation is not the will-o’-the-wisp that Musharraf’s is. Saakashvili wants badly for Georgia to join NATO and the European Union, and while he was busying cracking down on civil liberties last week, something progressive did occur in his country: Russia formally ended its military presence there. NATO had made this a prerequisite for further ratification of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and thus any consideration Georgia’s inclusion. On November 8, Andrei Popov, the commander of Russian military forces in the Caucasus, made good on the Kremlin’s 1999 promise and signed the papers that officially transferred control to Georgia of the last of its Soviet era bases in Batumi. So its NATO Membership Action Plan can now technically move forward.

Remarkably, even Georgia’s EU prospects have not been irreparably damaged by the state of emergency. The EU Special Representative to the south Caucasus, Peter Semneby, told EurasiaNet, “[I]f Georgia is successful now in turning the agenda towards the presidential elections, if the presidential elections are carried out successfully, then there should not be any lasting damage to these relations.” Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has even announced on Polskie Radio that he will travel to Georgia soon to help resolve the Imedi impasse. He was solicited for this role by the United States and by the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

Here is a fine example of how the United States and Europe can still resort to an effective carrot-and-stick diplomacy with iniquitous partners who still place high premiums on their military and economic ties to the West. The rumors of the Bush Doctrine’s death have been greatly exaggerated. It helps to compare Georgia not to Pakistan but to another often refractory and complicated ally: Turkey.

A Rose by Any Other Name - The Weekly Standard

Addendum by Will:  No need for bashfulness. Someone gets a profile here also.