TOP STORY – The (London) Times banners, 'Bush squares up to Putin,' and runs a commentary inside, 'Echo of Cold War as US flexes its muscles.'
N.Y. Times lead story (2 cols., 3 lines, all caps): 'Bush, Sending Aid, Demands That Moscow Withdraw Forces': (written by Steven Lee Myers): 'President Bush sent American troops to Georgia on Wednesday to oversee a 'vigorous and ongoing' humanitarian mission, in a direct challenge to Russia's display of military dominance over the region. ... The decision to send the American military, even on a humanitarian mission, deepened the United States' commitment to Georgia and America's allies in the former Soviet sphere, just as Russia has been determined to reassert its control in the area.'
AP's Matthew Lee: 'Rice was leaving for Paris Wednesday evening. And Bush delayed the start of his vacation by 'a day or two' to monitor developments, said presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino. He had been scheduled to leave Thursday for a two-week stay at his Texas ranch.'
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: 'The real objective is the Finlandization of Georgia through the removal of President Mikheil Saakashvili and his replacement by a Russian puppet. ... President Bush needs to make up for his mini-Katrina moment when he lingered in Beijing yukking it up with our beach volleyball team while Putin flew to North Ossetia to direct the invasion of a neighboring country.'
***AP – 'Bush-Fog of War -- US: Tracking Russia-Georgia war is frustrating,' by Deb Riechmann: ' The White House grasp of developments in war-battered Georgia has been hampered by confusing reports from the ground and intelligence resources that initially were focused more on Iraq and Afghanistan than the former Soviet republic.'
At 6:56 p.m., the White House issued, 'Setting The Record Straight: President Bush Has Taken Action To Ensure Peace, Security And Humanitarian Aid In Georgia -- The Wall Street Journal Inaccurately Claims The Administration Was Slow To Respond To The Conflict Between Georgia And Russia.' That refers to a Wednesday editorial saying that 'the Bush Administration stumbles to respond to the Russian invasion of Georgia' and 'has been missing in action.'
The document says, 'President Bush and his Administration have taken aggressive action, both public and non-public, to manage this crisis,' and lists 48 actions from Friday to yesterday.
CNN.com: 'On Tuesday, Randy Scheunemann, McCain's top foreign policy adviser, attacked the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's response to the situation in Georgia, saying his experience with the region amounted to a handful of paper statements. ... Susan Rice, Obama's senior foreign policy adviser, said [on MSNBC] Tuesday that McCain's comments condemning Russia 'may or may not have complicated the situation.'
AP pronouncer: SHU'-nuh-muhn.
Time cover story by Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to former President Carter -- 'Staring Down the Russians: The West has to show Moscow that it won't tolerate any attempt to reassert control over Georgia or the rest of the Soviet Union': 'Russia's aggression toward Georgia should not be viewed as an isolated incident. The fact is, Putin and his associates in the Kremlin don't accept the post- Soviet realities. ... Ukraine could well be the next flash point. ...
'At some point, the West should consider the Olympic option. If the issue of Georgia's territorial integrity is not adequately resolved (by, for example, the deployment in South Ossetia and Abkhazia of a truly independent international security force replacing Russian troops), the U.S. should contemplate withdrawing from the 2014 Winter Games, to be held in the Russian city of Sochi, next to the violated Georgia's frontier.'
In Time, Samantha Power writes on Russia's 'sense of victimhood': '[T]he run-up to Putin's inexcusable invasion suggests that Russia's action had as much to do with its wounded pride as with its alleged impaired security.'