Condoleezza Rice had to use an unfamiliar aircraft when she flew to Europe for emergency talks on the conflict in Georgia this week.
The Boeing 757 usually made available to the secretary of state was being used by Dick Cheney, vice-president, for a political fundraising trip to Colorado, forcing Ms Rice to take a smaller C-40.
To critics, the second-class transport symbolised the Bush administration's second-rate response to the crisis.
"Washington was caught by surprise – both by the Georgian action and the scale of the Russian reaction," says Janusz Bugajski, an expert on the region at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Stung by the criticism, the administration has adopted an increasingly muscular and high-profile approach in recent days, including the launch of a humanitarian mission to the war zone involving US military forces.
President George W. Bush on Friday sharpened his rhetoric, warning that Russian "bullying and intimidation" would not be tolerated.
"Only Russia can decide whether it will now put itself back on the path of responsible nations, or continue to pursue a policy that promises only confrontation and isolation," he said.
But experts warn that Washington has few effective instruments to match its tough words. Military intervention has been ruled out, and European allies are resisting US pressure to expel Russia from the Group of Eight industrialised nations and bar it from the World Trade Organisation.
The most concrete US action so far has been its agreement on Thursday to base Patriot missiles in Poland as part of a long-awaited deal to place missile defence facilities in the country. The deal – fiercely opposed by Moscow – had been nearing completion for months. However, the crisis added urgency to negotiations, with Washington rushing to signal its commitment to US allies in the region.
Experts say the biggest test of US resolve and transatlantic unity will come at the next meeting of Nato foreign ministers in December, when eastward expansion of the military alliance will again be up for discussion.
US efforts to put Georgia on a formal path towards Nato membership look dead for the foreseeable future, but the Bush administration could use the December meeting to press the case for Ukraine to be granted a membership action plan.
Much may depend on who wins the US presidential election in November.
Victory for John McCain, the Republican candidate and staunch advocate of Nato expansion, might embolden the Bush administration on the issue in its final weeks in office, while a win for Barack Obama, who has taken a more cautious stance on Russia, could force Washington to ease off.
Criticism of US handling of the crisis and events leading up to it divide into two camps: those who believe the Bush administration provoked Russia by aligning itself too closely with Georgia, and those who believe it did not stand up to Moscow strongly enough.
Both camps agree, however, that the US delivered mixed messages to Georgia by cautioning it against military action in private while championing its cause in public, and that Washington failed to pay sufficient attention to the brewing crisis.
"There has been no vision or strategy to bring together the different elements of policy towards the region and no common front with Europe," says Mr Bugajski, blaming the administration's preoccupation with the Middle East and terrorism.
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