Here we go again, tumbling down the rabbit hole with George W.

What a hoot to see the Bush Gang, which can't ever seem to shoot straight, railing at Russia's rough-up of the Republic of Georgia. Bush, Condi Rice, Robert Gates and others have wagged their fingers furiously at the Russkies in recent days, scolding them for invading a "sovereign state." John McCain also jumped in, declaring, "In the 21st century, nations don't invade other nations."

All of the scolders had their faces locked in a scowl, presumably to keep from bursting out in knee-slapping laughter. They are, after all, the gang that invaded and still occupies Iraq, the gang that continues to threaten the sovereign nation of Iran with regime change, the gang that so loudly proclaimed the Bush Doctrine in 2002, asserting the "right" of the U.S. military to carry out pre-emptive strikes against any nation or group anywhere without consulting anyone. Apparently none of them have a single irony gene in their bodies.

Russia's invasion of Georgia is the Bush Doctrine turning right around and biting its creators on the butt. And — O, cruel fate! — the bite hurts all the more because it comes from Vladimir. That's Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, who Bush has hailed as his good buddy. They've been tight since 2001, when George first met Vlad at the presidential ranchette in Texas. Bush said back then that he had looked into Putin's eyes and "got a sense of his soul," which, he attested, was pure.

Gates, Bush's Pentagon chief, is a bit more pragmatic than our presidential soul-searcher. Asked after the Georgia shootout whether Putin could any longer be trusted, Gates said: "I have never believed that one should make national security policy on the basis of trust. I think you make national security policy based on interests and realities."

Well said! So, what are our interests in Georgia? Why have the Bushites rushed to stand so determinedly with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and to insist on preserving the country's "territorial integrity"? If we look beyond all the puffery about Georgia being a flower of democracy and an ally in the war on terrorists, there stands one big honking reality that Gates fully grasps: oil.

Not that Georgia has any, but it has something else that Big Oil coveted: a non-Russian route for a pipeline that could move Central Asian crude hundreds of miles to the Mediterranean Sea, from whence it could then be shipped to Europe and the United States.

There are vast reserves of oil in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea, and such giants as ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips and BP hold leases on these riches. But how to get this black gold to the West?

Moscow had long been the dominant force over oil in Central Asia, including controlling pipelines out of the former Soviet republics. This has given Russia great regional clout and provided petro-dollars that have helped fuel its recent economic rise. Eager to break Russia's hold and assert their own influence in the region, Western oil corporations needed a friend to let them run their own pipeline just to the south of the Russian border.

Voila — Georgia! Under both Bill Clinton and Bush, the U.S. government aggressively developed ties to the Georgian government, pushing it to allow passage through the countryside of the Baku-Thilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC).

Hostilities between Russia and Georgia, with Russia now clearly gaining the upper hand in that tense relationship, raise questions about the reliability of BTC for Western oil corporations. And that's why the Bushites are inserting America into yet another conflict that is rooted in historic ethnic enmities in another volatile region about which our leaders know squat. It's not about standing up for democracy — it's about oil.

To find out more about Jim Hightower, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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