CNN is showing new video from a camera crew, traveling down a road somewhere, with flaming cars on either side of the road. It looks like something out of a Central Asia version of Mad Max.

Fox News says Russian troops are 35 miles from the capital of Tbilisi.

I’m less than wowed with our current administration’s reaction. I’d be happier if, as the editors urged, we were urging NATO to confirm Georgia and Ukraine for membership.

But I wonder whether Americans look at a chaotic, violent world, where brutes like Putin authorize an all-out invasion while the world is at the Olympics, and say, “yes, this looks like a job for a former community activist. After all, people really seemed to like him on his world tour a few weeks ago.”

I’m reminded of David Brooks’ criticism of Obama’s Berlin speech, particularly the line “People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.” The world never stands as one. The wall didn’t come down because the world united. Many Europeans vocally protested deploying American missiles in Europe. Margaret Thatcher opposed the reunification of Germany.

There wouldn’t be a a challenge too great for a world that stands as one. But that never happens. For now, one part of the Russian world is standing as one in Georgian territory. The question is what the West — and the next president — is going to do about it.