This doesn’t surprise me. Remember the Obama campaign’s initial response to warfare between Georgia and Russia back in 2008? Rather than express outright support for Georgia as John McCain did, Obama called for both sides to exercise restraint. That despite the fact Russia’s superior military was pounding the ever-loving hell out of Georgian assets.

As Allahpundit points out, Georgia’s announcement that it had foiled a plot to sell weapons-grade uranium was perhaps the biggest announcement from the nuclear summit. And President Saakashvili is an unrepentant, unrelenting supporter of American interests in the region. Yet the president of the United States snubs him.

Saakashvili’s exclusion from the bilateral schedule is striking considering his strong support for U.S. interests, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Georgia sent as many as 2,000 troops from its tiny army to Iraq. It will soon have nearly 1,000 in Afghanistan; 750 are being sent to fight under U.S. command. U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke noted last month that Georgia’s per capita troop contribution would be the highest of any country in the world.

Obama thanked Saakashvili for that help in their phone call last week. But according to a Georgian account of the call, Obama didn’t say anything about Georgia’s aspiration to join NATO, or about Georgia’s interest in buying defensive weapons from the United States, in order to deter a repeat of the 2008 Russian invasion. “It’s a work in progress,” Saakashvili said of his defense talks with the administration during a meeting with Post editors and reporters Monday. “It’s a step-by-step approach. It takes time.”

The entire active duty personnel base for the Georgian Armed Forces totals about 24,000. But despite that small force, the nation has sent thousands of troops to assist our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds more are being sent to fight under our command. Georgia has done everything possible to help the United States.

And how do we respond? Silent and light praise in private, and then a public snubbing in order to appease the same Kremlin that’s currently helping a state-sponsor of terrorism (Iran) develop nuclear weapons. Absolutely sad and pathetic.

Allah asks:

Didn’t we just make nice with Russia last week when we signed the START treaty? Surely that burst of goodwill could have endured a meeting with Georgia’s president, especially with Medvedev and Putin angling to push the U.S. out of its base in Kyrgyzstan.

Of course we didn’t actually earn any good will from Moscow. We just showed weakness. Russia is arming our enemies, trying to destroy our military objectives, and overthrowing US-friendly governments. And we responded by appeasing Russia, snubbing our friends, and eliminating major sections of our nuclear arsenal. You’ll excuse Russia for figuring it can walk all over us.