By Matthew Palcher, Kansas City Star Editorial Board Reader Advisory panel 2008

It is deja vu all over again for the citizens of the Caucasus. Sights of tanks trekking down the streets of Georgia had to rekindle painful memories of Soviet expansion and imperialist ambition. The world has witnessed similar events this past century: Moscow in 1917, Warsaw in 1939, and more recently, Kuwait City in 1990.

It would behoove the United States and the Western European community not to turn a blind eye to unmitigated oppression this time. Learning from the historic lessons of other conflicts, our nation must continue to find an expeditious and permanent resolve to the instability that is plaguing that part of Eurasia. Perhaps this is a show of Russian imperial recrudescence, and our leadership must not take any signal of unjustified expansion lightly.

One must question what Vladimir Putin had to prove by mobilizing forces in Georgia. Perhaps this is an international announcement that the Russian military and economic machine is back from the quiescent period of the 1990's. It could also be a demonstration to other former Soviet republics, especially the Baltic states, that their choices are limited: either to acquiesce with the demands from Moscow or face serious economic and geopolitical consequences.

This summer of our discontent is quickly becoming the autumn of our apprehension. With regard to international relations, our merry meetings have once again been changed to stern alarums. Grim-visaged war has once again wrinkled his long smooth front. Our leadership can ill-afford to dance to the music of lutes, while the battle drums are beating.

Vladimir Putin has essentially lost more than he gained in the recent Georgian incursion. Now the Russians face possible expulsion from the G-8, probable major economic sanctions from the West, and the prospect of losing the lucrative Winter Olympic Games in 2014.

President Bush once said that he looked Putin in the eye, and if the eyes are indeed the window to a man's soul, perhaps the President did not peer clearly enough to see the Russian Premier for who he really is. Putin is quickly becoming an overweeningly ambitious despot and a diplomatic desperado. The Bush Administration better come to its senses. Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know. It is time that we begin to see Vladimir Putin for who he really is....before it's too late.