Source: CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight
With reports that Russian troops remain in Georgia, the West continues its diplomatic push to resolve the conflict. In an interview with CNN’s Lou Dobbs, Michael McFaul acknowledges that the West does not have enough leverage over Russia to influence its actions. He explains that the U.S. could have helped prevent the crisis in the first place if it had dealt with the, 'frozen conflicts' in South Ossetia and Abkhazia earlier: “We needed a negotiated settlement and we needed real international peacekeepers.”
He reiterates that now the primary U.S. goal should be to "get the Russian troops back to their pre-invasion places.”