Finally someone’s noted the similarities between the Russian protectorates in Georgia and the Turkish colony of Northern Cyprus. Turkey rightly paid a price internationally for its 1974 invasion and occupation, but it wasn’t like Mehmed the Conqueror was on the march again, any more than Putin’s adventure in Georgia marks a return of the Cold War. There are conflicts like this all over the world — Karabagh, Transdniestria, Kashmir, Kurdistan, Kabylia, Western Sahara, etc. — and in considering how (or even whether) to respond, we need to be a lot less Manichean and lot more cold-blooded than we’ve been.