Going It Alone, Georgians Fume at US Inaction

As a haggard group of soldiers clambered into the flatbed truck, vacantly clutching Kalishnikovs, one explained the cause of their despair: “America and the European Union are spitting on us.” It’s an exceedingly popular sentiment in Georgia, the New York Times reports. The fiercely pro-Western nation had expected far more from its allies, who have instead focused on brokering a ceasefire.

America has particularly disappointed; Georgia so loves the US that its capital contains a George W. Bush Street. “Tell your government,” said one man whose son was being treated for combat injuries. “If you had said something stronger, we would not be in this.” Downtrodden troops meanwhile expected military support. “We killed as many of them as we could,” said one. “But where are our friends?” (More Georgia stories.)