US Navy Dares Russia in Black Sea Port

The US Navy is doing what they are designed to do, project US power to all corners of the map. They have decided to test just how much Vlad Putin and the Russians want to hang out in a Georgian port city and figured they stop on by and see for themselves":

A US navy flagship has steamed into a Georgian port where Russian troops are still stationed, stoking tensions once again in the tinderbox Caucasus region.

A previous trip by American warships was cancelled at the last minute a week ago amid fears that an armed stand off could erupt in the Black Sea port of Poti.

The arrival of the USS Mount Whitney came as Moscow accused Dick Cheney, the hawkish US vice-president, of stoking tensions during a visit to Tbilisi yesterday, in which he vowed to bring Georgia into the Nato alliance. Russia sees any such move as a blatant Western encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney will get heat on this from Democrats who will accuse them of ratcheting up tensions or some other such nonsense but the simple fact is that we have to make a stand in support of our allies.

If we were going to really antagonize the Soviets Russians, we'd have sent a guided missile cruiser or a destroyer, not a command ship, albeit a command ship that is able to defend itself quite nicely.