FOR ALL THE OIL IN COLOMBIA

PRESIDENT BUSH has inherited a $1.3 billion commitment to supply and train
government troops to fight rebel forces who protect -- and profit from --
Colombian coca-growing peasants. Now he must decide whether to pursue a
policy that has failed miserably and threatens to spread the 37-year-old
Colombian civil war into Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.

The first hopeful sign appeared last week, when President Andres Pastrana
- -- risking political support, as well as his life -- ventured into
rebel-controlled territory and rekindled peace talks that had been dormant
for months.

For that brave and audacious gesture, however, U.S. military aid was
unnecessary.

Otherwise, the news from Colombia has been grim. Last year, paramilitary
forces killed 60 labor leaders. Seven hundred peasants caught in the cross
fire -- their crops and families fumigated by military helicopters -- fled
to Panama last month. Colombian guerrilla forces have recently clashed with
government troops in Ecuador.

Why are we in Colombia?

It may be that the country's huge oil reserves interest President Bush and
Vice President Dick Cheney -- both oil men from Texas -- more than coca leaves.

Last year, Colombia's main export poured some $4.6 billion into its economy.

But oil is not easy to procure there. Just days ago, leftist rebels bombed
Colombia's second-largest crude export pipeline, which forced Los
Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. to drastically reduce its production.

Guerrilla groups, which view the above-ground pipeline as the most visible
symbol of foreign corporate exploitation of Colombia's natural resources,
bombed the 485-mile oil duct 98 times last year alone. So far this year,
they have crippled the pipeline 13 times.

When he campaigned for the presidency, Bush pledged to make Latin America
his highest priority. In the region, he sees a unique opportunity to leave
a distinguished foreign policy legacy.

But what kind of legacy? Neither the drug war nor the civil war in Colombia
can be won quickly or easily by military means. And if it is the flow of
oil that Bush seeks to protect, he needs to make his case honestly and
directly to the American people.