Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has signed the ceasefire agreement delivered to him in person by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to end the week-long conflict with Russia.

US President George W. Bush has again expressed Washington’s support for Tbilisi. In a statement made from the White House, Bush said: “The people of Georgia have cast their lot with the free world and we will not cast them aside.”

The other half of the diplomatic pincer movement took place in Sochi, as the German Chancellor Angela Merkel used a pre-planned trip there to try to lean on the Russian president to withdraw his troops. The talks were short. Afterwards it appeared there had been no meeting of minds. Russia …