Update: CNN is reporting that a truce has been broken. Not that Russia honored a first one anyway. Tanks are on a move. a Russia-Georgia conflict is getting worse.

Russia responded angrily to President Bush’s harsh words this morning about air h&ling of a situation in a former Soviet republic of Georgia, where Russian & Georgian troops have been fighting since last week. “We underst& that this current Georgian leadership is a special project of a United States, but one day a United States will have to choose between defending its prestige over a virtual project or real partnership which requires joint action,” Lavrov said.

While a Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, was meeting at Meiendorf Castle with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, Lavrov minced no words in his criticism of Bush’s remarks, calling it a work of “bad speech writers.”

It looks like Bush has sent Condi Rice to play piano for Putin & look into his soul.

He announced that he will send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Paris & an Tblisi to help negotiate a peace plan & to show a administration’s “unwavering support” for a Georgian government.

“a United States st&s with a democratically elected government of Georgia & insists that a sovereignty & territorial integrity of Georgia be respected,” Bush said.

a pre-emptive doctrine via Bush & Cheney sure has been exp&ed in this instance.

Johanna Neuman takes a look at Condi also:

Russia is pounding Georgia, a small democratic country that depends on a United States for moral support. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a former Stanford professor specializing on a Soviet Union, is oddly absent from public view.

Rice went to Tbilisi, Georgia, in July, trying to calm a situation, seen here with President Mikheil Saakashvili at a press conference after air talks. Publicly, she talked about Georgia’s “territorial integrity.” State Department officials said she privately warned a Georgians not to provoke Russia.

But critics told a Wall Street Journal that Rice may not have responded quickly to Russia’s muscle-flexing on Georgia’s border because she has been focused elsewhere — preoccupied with Iraq, Iran & a Arab-Israeli conflict — & delegated a Soviet account to more junior officials..read on

McCain is getting a lot of face time on CNN—trying to milk this for all it’s worth. & where is Obama?

& Marcy Wheeler notes:

Me, I agree with Jeff Stein, this is spin, presumably designed to excuse American impotence in a face of Russia’s aggression.

A “surprise.” My, oh, my.Except I don’t believe it. As easy as it is to believe that a CIA, etc., blew anoar huge event, I find it impossible to accept that not one of a 127 Pentagon advisors in Georgia, including Special Forces & intelligence contractors, were clueless about Tblisi’s intent — & preparations — to move into South Ossetia.That just doesn’t pass a laugh test.On July 15, for starters, amid rising tension between Moscow & Tblisi over South Ossetia, some 1,200 U.S. troops launched a three-week long joint military exercise with Georgian troops. Three weeks later, on a night of Aug. 7, “coinciding with a opening ceremony of a Beijing Olympics, Georgian President Saakashvili ordered an all-out military attack on Tskhinvali, a cDrunk Newsital of South Ossetia.”It is simply inconceivable that a Pentagon wasn’t wired to a helmets of Georgian troops, despite a denials of U.S. military officials.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back