Here is the text of Walkom's article in the Star:

Chavez fell foul of Bush doctrine Thomas Walkom THERE ARE two George W. Bush doctrines. The second and best known has to do with terror. Those who harbour or support terrorists, or even those who are seen by Washington as not adequately opposing terrorism, are liable to U.S. attack. It is neatly summed in the U.S. president's pithy phrase: "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."

But there is a prior George W. doctrine, upon which the second is based. It is about energy and is reflected in actions which defined Bush's early presidency — his rejection of the Kyoto accord on global warming for fear that it might interfere with the hydrocarbon industry, his insistence on drilling for oil in an Alaskan wildlife preserve.

That first Bush doctrine could be summed up in the phrase: Those who do not supply us with the energy we want are against us.

Sometimes, the two Bush doctrines complement each other, as in Afghanistan, where the American president has used his pursuit of alleged Al Qaeda terrorists as an opportunity to establish military bases in and around the massive oil fields of Central Asia.

Sometimes, the two doctrines coexist uneasily — as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is finding in the Middle East.

There, petroleum-producing nations are reluctant to let Bush proceed with his plans to put the oil fields of Saddam Hussein's Iraq into friendly hands (under the guise of fighting terror) unless, at the very least, Washington reins in its client state Israel.

The result here is that Bush, in order to salvage his energy policy, has been put in the embarrassing position of chiding the Israelis for mimicking his own, stern terrorism policy. But rarely has Bush's energy doctrine been as starkly visible as it was on Friday. That was the day that rebel military forces overthrew democratically elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and installed a pro-U.S., former oil company executive, as national leader.

While there is no evidence Washington organized the coup, it is hard to imagine that the plotters did not act without the Bush regime's blessing. Not only did the White House immediately support the coup, it blamed Chavez for his own downfall, a curious leap of logic.

The reason was oil. True, Chavez had irritated Bush by trading with Cuba's Fidel Castro. He even visited Saddam Hussein once. But his real sin was that he tried to rein in the country's powerful state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela. In so doing, he threatened U.S. interests.

Petroleos has long been a law unto itself. It uses the bulk of its hefty royalties to increase production. It sells that production to the U.S. As a result, Venezuela is America's third largest supplier of crude oil. In the politically important U.S. automotive gasoline market, its share is even larger.

Chavez wanted to target more of the country's oil profits to fight Venezuela's staggering poverty. The state oil company (and Washington) wanted to spend more on expanding oil production for export.

What's more, the president irritated multinational oil companies with his own version of Canada's long-dead National Energy Program — doubling royalties and requiring majority Venezuelan ownership in new projects.

To accomplish all of this, Chavez fired the head of the state oil company and appointed a new slate of directors, which, as the country's president, he was apparently legally empowered to do.

Earlier this year, oil company managers and workers responded by staging strikes that slashed crude oil imports to the U.S. by more than a third.

Then came Israel's massive military incursions into the West Bank. For Chavez, the timing was unfortunate. On April 8, Iraq announced a 30-day oil boycott in support of beleaguered Palestinians. The price of crude rose; analysts warned that U.S. economic recovery could suffer. On Friday, four days after the Iraqi boycott, a faction of the Venezuelan military deposed Chavez.

State oil company managers and workers ended their strike. The new president, installed by the military, announced he was cancelling laws the multinational oil firms didn't like.

Exports to the U.S. resumed. The price of crude slipped by 6 per cent. Not surprisingly, Bush's White House gave its imprimatur to the coup.

Alas, the U.S. had not put enough thought, and perhaps not enough effort, into this otherwise admirable use of Bush Doctrine One. The Venezuelan military, it seems, was split. Some senior officers still liked former paratrooper Chavez.

What's more, other Latin American nations friendly to the U.S. declined to play their usual accommodating role, instead bucking Washington to condemn the coup. On Sunday, Chavez was returned to office.

Still, the Bush White House was unrepentant. National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice said she hoped Chavez had learned his lesson. Presumably, he has. So have we all. Bush wants the world's energy. As much as the events of Sept. 11, this is what drives U.S policy.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas Walkom's column appears on Tuesday. He can be reached at twalkom@thestar.ca