Georgia the U.S. is with you, maybe.

To really understand or even be accurately informed of what is happening in the world, one has to use the U.S. media sparingly. They are afflicted by the herd mentality; and feeding frenzies. Theirs is a world of sound bites. So we are given gossip instead of news and sound bites instead of facts.

If you really desire to know what the rest of the world think, spend more time with the BBC. Or if Peter Jennings was here, we could at least get the other side of the story. But then again, he was Canadian (and probably spoke French too) which would make him elitist.

Take that little spat between Russia and the darling of the U.S. - Georgia. When it began we were shown images of John McCain shouting with glee "Georgia the U.S. is with you".

This is where John McCain is supposed to be "strong"- war. So he was given free reign to 'play president.' We were told that the president of Georgia was in daily touch with him and the people were even chanting his name in the streets. He understands how to deal with Russia, it was said, and even spoke some "strong" words. Barack Obama accurately describe it as 'bluster instead of a (foreign) policy'.

If all you listen to is CNN and FoxNews you would think that the fearless leader, John 'Wayne' McCain, had confronted evil and defeated it.

The fact is that Russia has for all purposes annexed those two regions of Georgia that are in dispute. And all that the Bush administration could do was to "plead" with the Russia parliament to hold off on their vote, ratifying the move by Putin. It was pathetic the way the Russians poked John 'Wayne" McCain and his other blusterers in their collective eye.

What is most interesting - and you hear very little of this in the U.S. media - is Putin's assertion that Georgia was encouraged by the Bush administration to make that tragic move against Ossetia in order to favour one presidential candidate. Putin may be on to something.

Oh how I miss Peter Jennings.