Posted: 4:50 am
August 30, 2008
RUSSIAN Prime Minister Vladimir Putin doesn't play defensive ball - he's all offense, all the time. First, he invaded Georgia. Now he's invading our presidential election.
Thursday, Putin and his propaganda agents "explained" that the Georgia crisis - simmering for 20 years - was cooked up in the Bush White House.
Russia's thug-in-chief would have us believe that US political hacks duped tiny Georgia into launching a war that would dismember it, and that they did so in order to fabricate an image of a menacing Russia - thus frightening Americans into voting Republican.
Well, I can tell you from inside sources that every American involved in Georgia counseled its president to ignore Russia's bloody provocations. Ultimately, though, President Mikheil Saakashvili had to respond to the deadly attacks on his own people. And Putin got his war.
But the truth doesn't matter - and Putin knows it. When it comes to sizing up opponents, he's the greatest intelligence operative of our time.
Putin gets us. He knew he only had to toss out a "Wag the Dog" scenario and the Western media would bark - and the White House would have to respond on the defensive.
He also realized that conspiracy junkies (and European pols) would snap up the story and keep it alive through November.
Putin's repeating his Georgia gambit: Tell a Big Lie blaming the victim for what the perp just did.
It's shameless, and it works. Yesterday morning, NPR's Diane Rehm-usually an admirable host - led a "serious" discussion about Putin's charge.
Putin's reinvented the show trial for the 21st century: You hold it in the media. Once the accusation's made, the accused is guilty. Putin's so good he might've outplayed Stalin.
Russia's latest strongman just committed the most flagrant intervention in a US presidential election by any foreign leader, purposely casting blame on the party he wants to lose in November. And the Western media didn't call him on it. Instead, they ran with the story.
Yet Putin unwittingly made a rare mistake: He showed fear.
Czar Vladimir clearly dreads a McCain presidency. John McCain got to know Putin's type intimately when he was tortured in Hanoi. He knows what Putin's all about - and Putin knows it.
The Democratic Party's slate is just to Putin's taste, though: Two men who believe that a chat can solve any problem. Obama-Biden's the most-European presidential ticket in US history. It's the Kremlin's dream team.
This week, Putin voted absentee.
Ralph Peters' latest book is "Looking for Trouble: Adventures in a Broken World."
