it s tough to know what would have happened in an alternative universe. imagine that we still had putin around in charge of russia but imagine he faced a different president, one who was tough, aggressive no compunctions about invading countries. oh wait, we ran that experiment in 2008. putin faced george w. bush, a president who had invaded afghanistan and iraq for good measure, in the latter case, defying massive international pressure and opposition, and yet, putin invaded georgia. and not as he did this time in a stealthy way with soldiers who were already there who switched their uniforms, he sent in russian tanks, roaring into georgia, and without any referendums, simply annexed two pieces of that country. does this prove that bush was a wimp after all? it doesn t. there has been some very good and careful scholarship by daryl press and jonathan mercer, among others, that looks at historical cases to figure out whether having a reputation for