Vlad must be smirking and telling his advisors, “I told you so.”

Yesterday’s failure by NATO to issue little more to the Russian than a good talking to, demonstrates how useless and archac the organization has become. It begs the observation of whether of not it was ever useful or little more than a l good way to make our “friends” feel important. Bogged down in a cesspool of self-interest, its never really acted in response to Russian aggression, but always relied on the United States to do the heavy lifting - if not all of it. And in the event we did, we are said to be acting unilaterally.

European officials said they were not about to get into a military confrontation with Russia over Georgia. That is why European countries have blocked the Bush administration’s efforts to bring Georgia and Ukraine into the alliance, said a senior European diplomat involved in the NATO emergency meeting Tuesday.

While the NATO statement did promise to consider the idea of beginning Georgia’s accession to NATO in December, the diplomat said that in reality, the prospects were virtually nil. “It’s impossible,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity under normal diplomatic procedure.

The alliance’s charter, he pointed out, stipulates that potential NATO members have to resolve outstanding border issues before joining. That alone would block Georgia’s entry. In addition, he said, European countries are not interested in granting Georgia membership just to spite Russia.

Similarly, it is doubtful that the United States, its military stretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, would go to war with Russia to defend Georgia even if it were a member of NATO, said George Friedman, chief executive of Stratfor, a geopolitical risk analysis company.

”The assumption that everybody made was that a mere guarantee by NATO would preclude any threat because the Russians would never dare displease NATO or the United States,” he said. Except now, he said, Russia has called the West’s bluff.

Tuesday’s emergency session brought the fractures in NATO into sharp relief. Even before the meeting started, the French, Germans and even the British were saying they had no intention of seeking to isolate Russia. “We asked others not to stop relations between NATO and Russia,” Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said in an interview. “We have to talk to them, but if they don’t implement their promises, we have to react and stand up strongly.”