The weak American response to Russia’s invasion of Georgia has not been lost on anyone, and one article even quoted a refugee fleeing the conflict zone toward safety as commenting “If Bush had said something stronger, the Russians wouldn’t have pushed on toward Gori.” The Georgian Olympic war is quickly becoming a measuring stick of Washington’s squandered international power after years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and severely strained relations with allies. Bay Fang of the Chicago Tribune has a good news analysis worth reading taking a look at the lost leverage.

On the first day that Russia struck Georgian troops in the breakaway province of South Ossetia, the Bush administration said it was working actively with its European partners to seek an end to hostilities.

Four days later, as Russian forces swarmed virtually unopposed into Georgian territory on Monday, the U.S. response was the same: “We are working very hard with the Europeans to try to resolve the conflict,” said Robert Wood, the deputy State Department spokesman.

Even as President George W. Bush vigorously condemned Russia’s actions, calling its military expansion into Georgian territory a “dramatic and brutal escalation” that is “unacceptable in the 21st Century,” there is not much the U.S. can do to protect its closest ally in the Caucasus.

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