As Russian forces started to hand over control of the Georgian town of Gori, you could detect a note of surprise, even disappointment, in many media reports. So the all-out Russian invasion of plucky little democratic Georgia might not be going to happen after all. Could it be that the bear was drawing in his claws?

Well, Russia did not have long to worry about losing its reputation as backyard bully. Within hours, the United States envoy to Georgia was spinning a whole new myth to the BBC about how it was only decisive US intervention by which he presumably meant the warplanes laden with humanitarian aid by then ostentatiously parked at Tbilisi airport that the mighty erstwhile Red Army had been turned back.