With the messy, unfortunate, and tragic war between Russia and Georgia now wrapping up under the hazy fog of ceasefire agreements (minus of course the ongoing pillaging and humiliation of the defeated and the exceptionally slow removal of Russian tanks), the U.S. and European media and catching their breath to engage in a second round vigorous war hysteria, overt Russia hating, and yellow journalism. My view is that this distorted coverage of the war, at both extremes, represents a dangerous distraction. We’re seeing frequent comparisons between this war and Hitler’s annexation of Sudetenland – an event so charged with history and unforeseen repercussions that its comparison is inaccurate if not crass. We’re seeing widespread calls from politicians and newspaper editorials to “stand up” to the newly “resurgent” enemy. We’re making a wide variety of assumptions about what this means in terms of Russia’s foreign policy ambitions with little more than suspicion as fear as evidence. The West appears to be trying its hardest to demonize Russia and reinvent the Cold War. What no one seems to realize is that this is exactly the hysterical reaction that the siloviki were hoping that the conflict would produce, and by engaging in these disproportionate histrionics, many of us are voluntarily playing an active role in deepening their influence over society and cementing authoritarianism in Russia. In other words, we are playing right into their hands.