An AP photo dated August 9, 2008, taken from the city of Gori, Georgia, shows a woman on the ground, bleeding from her face reaching up in shock. A less-cropped version of the photo shows the legs of a dead body sticking out from the rubble she's sitting against. In the background there's a damaged, burning apartment building.

The scene takes me back to days I worked in Balkans in the late 90s. It tells a story somewhat familiar to me. Not so much the horror of the woman and corpse she's leaning against. I've never faced that kind of agony first hand. For the most part, all my travel and work in the Balkans took place when the combat ended. What’s familiar to me is the apartment building.

Another photo of what I believe is the same building shows a burning upper-story corner apartment. Bullet holes riddle the wall around the balcony on one side of the building. I suspect someone made a stand in that apartment before a missile strike settled the argument. But I’m not exactly convinced that all the damage to the apartment building was due to a legitimate combat response. And I’m betting that there are more apartment buildings and houses that have intentionally been damaged and more, many more yet to get hit.

When I worked and travelled through Bosnia-Herzegovinian and Kosovo I could see with my own eyes the evidence of a systematic campaign to target, damage and destroy the places where people lived. There were regions where one could look out on the horizon and turn 360 degrees and see that every structure of human habitat left standing had a hole or several holes in them – big holes. What do I personally know about ethnic cleansing? Well, I know it can make homes look like swiss cheese.

I read this morning that 30,000 refugees have fled from the contested areas of Ossetia. Perhaps that number has doubled or tripled as I write this. I suspect most are not the ethnic Russians that the Russian government has pledged to protect with its “peacekeepers.”

No one disputes the fact that in the last seven years the US has inflicted collateral damage against innocent people. But any claims of intentional and, especially, systematic damage against civilians are baseless, not to mention ridiculous. The US and the western democracies have abandoned, hopefully forever, the tactic of waging war against civilians.

But in the last four years, Vladimir Putin’s government has made some particularly audacious, belligerent moves such as the attempted poisoning of the president of Ukraine, the successful poisoning by radiation of a political opponent in London, the resumption of bomber flights near US territory and supplying the Venezuelan government with arms. Recently the Russian government has discussed the resumption of military ties with Cuba, including the housing of Russian bombers on Cuban soil.

In the movie Charlie Wilson’s War, getting a chance to help kill Russians seemed pretty cool to CIA case officer Gust Avrakotos, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. And given the events of the period portrayed, and of Soviet behavior during the last century, the idea seems cool to the audience as well. But in reality the West harbors no lingering ill will to Russia or the Russian military. That was apparent eight years ago when NATO tried in vain to assist the Russian navy in rescuing the doomed Russian submarine, the Kursk. The West is not eager to return to the days of the cold war. The US has enough problems fighting the War on Terrorism.

But there has to be a point at which continued belligerent actions have to be checked. As much as the US wants good relations with post-Soviet, mostly capitalistic Russia, the US and the Western democracies can not ignore Russian behavior. The US and its NATO allies must extend some protection to new democracies. If Russia is determined to continue this campaign, we have to supply and assist Georgia.

In the late 1990s a number of Russian apartment buildings were destroyed and a number of people were killed by bombs. The fear and chaos those bombings caused and claims that Chechen terrorists were behind the attacks propelled Putin to the Russian presidency and, I have been told, provided some sweet real estate opportunities for others. New modern buildings went up in place of those old ugly buildings. Little proof has ever been presented to back up the claims that Chechen terrorists were behind the bombings. I’ve never been to Russia, but I haven’t forgotten about those apartment buildings either.