"It drew immediate condemnation from the United States and its allies.

"Acting a day after Russia's Parliament unanimously supported the enclaves' request to secede, President Dmitri A. Medvedev announced that he had signed decrees recognizing the two territories' independence. He blamed the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, for causing the bloodshed and forcing Moscow's hand.

"He said it was clear that the warring sides could never again live together, and South Ossetia and Abkhazia had to be independent.

" 'This is not an easy choice, but it is the only way to save the lives of people,' Mr. Medvedev said in a nationally televised address. 

"The move would put U.S. military assets within close range of Russian forces for the first time since the Georgian conflict began, potentially setting up a confrontation with Moscow, the dominant naval power in the Black Sea.

"Officials in Poti, Georgia's main commercial port, are preparing for the arrival of up to two U.S. military vessels Wednesday morning, said Alan Middleton, CEO of the privately run Poti Sea Port.

"The arrival of U.S. vessels was certain to anger Moscow. A senior Russian military official said Tuesday he was "bewildered" by the growing presence of NATO warships in the northeastern Black Sea. Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn told reporters in Moscow that nine NATO ships were in the region, including a U.S. vessel that arrived late Tuesday, the Russian Itar-Tass news agency reported.

"Coming to Poti would mark a change in American military posture since Sunday, when the USS McFaul, a naval destroyer, the first U.S. warship to bring relief goods to Georgia, anchored off the coast of Batumi, a smaller port 50 miles to the south and far from any Russian checkpoints."

After McSame's bumbling Bobbsey twins, Lieberman and Graham, failed to accomplish anything when J. Sid, acting inappropriately like the president, dispatched them to Georgia; he has now sent his top foreign policy gun to Georgia...his wife, Cindy Lou! 

What a catastrophic Alice in Wonderland scenario: Bush sending a US warship to Georgia and McCain's sending his wife to Georgia...and that ain't Atlanta.  Bush and McSame are imbeciles. 

American voters should never cast their ballot for such a dangerous foreign policy warmongering, bring on the draft dunce like McSame (who is already partial to Georgia...his top foreign policy adviser was on Georgia's payroll as a lobbyist and not an honest broker) for president.