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Photo: The Brit_2

The verdict is now all but official: history will not be kind to George W. Bush.

This month’s Russian invasion of the former Soviet republic and burgeoning democracy of Georgia has decisively crushed any remaining doubt whatsoever — much as Russian tanks have now crushed any hope of a fully intact, sovereign, independent and Western-style democratic Georgia.

Even if Russia withdraws fully, the damage done to Georgia’s military, infrastructure, villages and national psyche will not so easily dissipate — looming as an ever-present message for all former Soviet republics against future alliance-building with the West.

The bungling of this major foreign policy crisis by the Bush administration — from day one — is only the latest chapter in this troubling saga. A series of red flags over the course of the past eight years should have provided ample clues to what lie ahead — a fervent resurgence of Russian authoritarianism, nationalism and quite possibly now, imperialism.

Consider the following more blatant examples of recent years:

• Russia seizes control of the country’s media, reinstating government-run propaganda.
• Journalists critical of the Russian regime mysteriously begin disappearing or turning up dead — even abroad.
• Potential political rivals are imprisoned on convenient trumped-up charges, as the government seizes control of the private companies they formerly led.
• Russia cuts off energy supplies to some of its neighboring young, independent nations, apparently hoping to cause the collapse of their democratically elected governments.
• As new evidence shows that the polar ice caps have begun melting, Russia boldly moves to lay claim to the North Pole — and any oil that may lie beneath it.
• Just last week, Russia warns that an American missile defense based in Poland would worsen U.S.-Russian relations and would not go unpunished. Rather than working with Russia to arrive at a mutually agreeable solution, the U.S. today signed the agreement with Poland.

Not only were these and numerous other signals ignored, they were overshadowed by such idiotic assurances that our fearless leader had seen into his Russian counterpart’s soul and somehow knew that he was trustworthy — a man who shared the values of a free world. Russian aspirations certainly were amplified by aggressive U.S. posturing within the old Soviet sphere of influence — from NATO membership solicitations to a highly controversial U.S. missile defense system based in Poland, both vigorously opposed by Moscow.

Just as the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union — and with them the final vestiges of the decades-long Cold War — collapsed on the watch of George H.W. Bush, history will show that the Soviet superpower effectively began reemerging all but in name on the watch of his son, who chose to ignore the growls of the returning bear even as they grew unmistakably louder. Upon finally acknowledging its presence, he opted to poke the bear in the eye.