Venezuela Watch

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/11268851.htm

Scary is a gentle way of saying it.

Re: Venezuela Watch


What?

A PR Campaign!

Can nothing stop these mad dogs?

HUGO CHAVEZ: CASTRO'S MINI-ME

By PETER BROOKES

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April 4, 2005 -- 'ONE darned thing after another": That's how former Secretary of State Dean Acheson once defined foreign policy. The latest "darned thing" for the United States is Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

For no apparent reason, the leftist strongman is arming Venezuela to the teeth. He's also supporting local narcoterrorists and other Latin revolutionaries.

Chavez idolizes Cuba's Fidel Castro, is chummy with Libya's Moammar Khadafy and was a Saddam Hussein pal. He's made nasty remarks about President Bush and "suggestive" public comments about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

According to Gerver Torres, a former Venezuelan government minister, Chavez's "main motivation now is to do everything he possibly can to negatively affect the United States, Bush in particular . . . trying to bring together all the enemies of the United States."

It's tempting to write off Chavez simply as Latin America's latest tin-pot dictator, but that would be a mistake. Venezuela's own "Fidelito" has the potential to cause real trouble for the United States ?- right in our own backyard.

Recognizing our economy's Achilles' heel, Chavez has threatened to cut off oil exports to the United States. Venezuela is our fourth-largest source of oil, providing 15 percent of U.S. oil needs (1.5 million barrels a day). This threat can't be ignored.

Curtailing exports would push already high American gas prices through the roof. Cognizant of this fact, Chavez recently proclaimed: "We have invaded the United States but with our oil."

Sure, it would be painful for Venezuela to cut off the 60 percent of its oil exports bound for the American market. But Venezuela is already looking to diversify its oil clientele beyond Uncle Sam.

Last December, Caracas struck a huge deal with Beijing for oil and gas sales and investment in Venezuela's energy sector.

Venezuela is stirring the security pot, too, sowing fear among its neighbors. From Russia, Chavez is buying 50 advanced MiG-29 fighters, 40 helicopter gunships and 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles. He's also bought arms from Spain and Brazil.

A cashiered former army colonel, Chavez also plans to increase the size of the army reserve as "an honorable answer to President Bush's intention of being the master of the world."

Gen. Bantz Craddock, commander in chief of the U.S. Southern Command, finds Venezuela's weapon extravaganza worrisome because Chavez's motives are unclear. "We're wondering just what the intent here is," the general told the Senate in recent testimony.

One of Washington's main concerns is the possibility of a conventional war between Venezuela and its neighbor Colombia, the U.S.'s main regional ally. At a minimum, Venezuela's oil-induced buying binge could set off a regional arms race.

There's also the possibility that some of el presidente's new "toys," especially the AK-47s and ammunition, could fall into the hands of Colombian FARC narcoterrorists.

The FARC is seeking to overthrow the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Caracas received some $3 billion in U.S. assistance over the last several years to support its fight against narcotraffickers and leftist rebel groups.

Chavez is rumored to be supporting the FARC, letting it use the Colombian-Venezuelan border area to recuperate and resupply.

Elsewhere, Chavez is mentoring Bolivian revolutionary Evo Morales, whose comrades recently tried to force President Carlos Mesa's resignation in an effort to take control of the National Assembly.

In Peru, it's been alleged that Chavez bankrolled the rogue army officer who tried to incite December's rebellion against President Alejandro Toledo. Chavez denies all of this, of course.

Many Americans will find it hard to take Chavez seriously, but his capacity for regional troublemaking shouldn't be discounted, especially as oil prices rocket.

Fortunately, the Bush administration recognizes this and is beginning to craft a new policy to deal with Chavez. The best approach will include working with other regional leaders to contain and isolate him, while not inflaming the dictator's popular support at home.

Chavez recently announced his intent to export his "Bolivarian revolution" (read: Cuban revolution). Considering his disastrous socialist economic and repressive political record at home, we'd better stop him before he gets started.

Peter Brookes is a Heritage Foundation senior fellow.

E-mail: [email protected]

The Heritage piece is a paradigm example of how a population gets "educated" to throw their support behind political and military incursions on another state. If and when we begin seeing much more of it (from 'think tanks' like Heritage, news outlets like Fox, etc which serve as the advance propaganda arm of the administration) we will know that action is imminent. That Chavez is in power as a consequence of a democratic election (and re-election) will become quite irrelevant. That he said something sexual about Rice, that he likes Castro, that he doesn't like unfettered US power/aggression, etc will trump all else. Not mentioned, of course, is the oil.

Two evils do not make a good.
The fact that Chávez is Anti-US does not mean he's truly progressive.
The fact that he was elected by the people does not make him a democrat (one has to see the conditions under which his re-election was organized and doubt about his legitimacy).
Of course I would be against any US intervention in Venezuela. But only as I was about Iraq. IMHO, the thing that makes Chávez better than Hussein is his love of baseball. Not much more.

fbaezer

I haven't meant to suggest Chavez is god's gift to democracies everywhere. What I am pointing to is:
1 - that any US intervention (covert and/or overt) will have scant to do with freedom and liberty for Venezuelans (though that will be the PR line) but will be driven by America's thirst for oil (Carter Doctrine) and its desire to control political events in the region based on its own notions/perceptions of self-interest and
2 - that one can pretty easily predict how the propaganda precursor steps will play out.

bookmark

Blatham

It would appear that you are an apologist for Chavez. What possible good will come of his actions to consolidate his power so that he can change the constitution and become dictator for life. You seem to think that you can predict the actions of the US. It is my prediction that he (Chavez) will support the insurgents in Columbia (Yes, I will call them insurgents for now) and that he intends to become Dictator for life, following his hero Castro.
Is that what you would like to see?

It would appear that you will support anyone who thumbs their nose at the US. Some neighbor you are!

Friends don't let friends drive drunk. Friends encourage friends to be civil. Friends tell friends when they're wrong.

I think your raybans are rose-colored and you've bought all the hype and the bullshit you've been fed since grade school, Rayban. Your government has been responsible for the deaths of millions of innocents the world over. Time to remove the blinkers and see American foreign policy for what it is.

It's really quite astonishing that so many Americans seem to relish being in a state of palpable ignorance and what's even more astonishing is that it just doesn't square with an free and open society.

Take a gander at this article. Really, who are the terrorists?

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/j/health.htm

This present campaign is a paradigm of Washington's pattern of accusing others of doing what Washington is planning to do or has already done. Even three New York Times reporters--Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad--in their 2001 book, Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, acknowledge U.S. contingency plans for bioterrorism against Cuba beginning soon after the revolution in 1959.

JTT

Friends don't use a bundle of absolutes to tell friends they are full of s**t...Please don't make unfounded allegations about the millions of innocents that the US has allegedly killed.....give me a valid source for that accusation.

I don't consider "Z" magazine a valid source........are you one of the "move-on.org" distortion artists?

BTW......What free and open society are you hiding in........you seem to want to remain anonymous but yet ready to snipe from the sidelines.

rayban is your own location known? I can't see it.

Anyway it's clear that the US is lining up Chavez for the oil. The process is just too transparent. Small wonder that Mugabe felt he could rig the elections and do his Dictator thing in Zimbabwe because it doesn't have oil. If it did I have no doubt that the White House would be lining him up for some serious treatment.

I'm saddened to say that this is just so typical, Rayban. The source, if you had taken even the smallest amount of time to find out, is Rutgers University. Your response is to move the issue away from the issue with tangents. You didn't even read it, I bet. Here's what followed the quoted part.


http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/j/health.htm

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/j/health.htm


One scenario was to start with a "biological strike against Cuba's soldiers and civilians." Speaking in 1999 about those schemes, Bill Patrick, who carried out biological research for two decades at Fort Detrick, Maryland (the main base for developing germ warfare), told an audience of military officers, "`We would incapacitate the Cuban population from three days to a little over two weeks.'" He explained that only about two percent of Cuba's seven million people (about 140,000) would die, and then "`We could move our forces in and take over the country and that would be it.'" This seems less unlikely and even more frightening when we remember that these plans coincided with President Kennedy's massive use of chemical warfare in Vietnam called Operation Hades, later renamed Operation Ranch Hand, that began in 1961 and continued under Presidents Johnson and Nixon until 1971.

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Want a wee bit 'o proof. Always happy to oblige a friend.


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http://free.freespeech.org/americanstateterrorism/centralamerica/Nicaragua.html

Teaching Nicaragua a Lesson

From a talk by John Stockwell, 13-year veteran of the CIA and former U.S. Marine Corps major:

"Systematically, the Contras have been assassinating religious workers, teachers, health workers, elected officials, government administrators. Remember the ?'Assassination Manual' that surfaced in 1984? It caused such a stir that President Reagan had to address it himself in the presidential debates with Walter Mondale. They use terror to traumatize society so that it cannot function.

"I don't mean to abuse you with verbal violence, but you have to understand what your Government and its agents are doing.

"They go into villages. They haul out families. With the children forced to watch, they castrate the father. They peel the skin off his face. They put a grenade in his mouth, and pull the pin. With the children forced to watch, they gang-rape the mother, and slash her breasts off. And sometimes, for variety, they make the parents watch while they do these things to the children.

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Read the whole article. You should be angry, really angry, Rayban, 'cause I'm sure that's not what you would want your country to be.

rayban

Nah, I don't think America is the big satan.

But it isn't difficult to observe how so many people around the world have come to think that so. Past policies have frequently caused much harm and the increasing level of bluster and claims of American exceptionalism coming out of America (from officials and citizens) do not inspire confidence.

(from page 11, America Right or Wrong, Anatol Lieven)

Blatham

I see you're back to your hero, Lieven...............I wrote some stuff about his obsession with "American Nationalism" which you never bothered to reply to. It was on another thread, the title of which I can't seem to remember. You and your hero are dead wrong about America but I'm certain you wouldn't take my word for it..........after all I'm only a 70 year old witness to your "American Nationalism" but then, you folks who have never lived in this country will always "latch on" to any thesis that is intellectually presented as long as it is critical of our motives and culture. Try reading another intellectual who will convincingly portray the "other side of the coin"..........Victor Davis Hanson.

rayban is it necessary to live in a country to be able to critique its culture and in particular its foreign policy?

If it wasn't obvious Goodfielder, I'm a proud citizen of the USA. I really laugh at the plethora of conspiracy theories about OIL being our ONLY motive for taking any action.

JTT

Yes, I know it was from Rutgers.........so what? If you want a RELIABLE source, try Foreign Affairs Mag. Then I will read it. Please don't bother with anymore of your high school debating techniques.

It certainly isn't............as long as you have an "open mind" and are super critical of the information being presented. This "saying" is a little over the top but after 70 years of observing: I only believe about half of what I see and NOTHING of what I read.

rayban

Well I didn't want to be presumptuous rayban. I sort of guessed it but it's nice to know. And yes I would imagine that you're getting plenty of humour out of the plethora of conspiracy theories. Probably as much as I am watching the stream of justifications for the invasion and occupation coming from the White House. "If this is Tuesday it must be...feedom, no wait, WMD...no that was Monday.." Sorry, it's too easy a target. Of course it's oil, nothing else makes sense.




Good, I feel better. I mean the current foreign policy is abysmal from my point of view. The domestic policy looks pretty bad too but since I don't live in the States it doesn't affect me. But the economic policy will affect me because it's the old story, if America sneezes the rest of us get a cold and since your economy is in such a parlous state - sadly - I'm concerned that the incompetence will damage the rest of us.

Anyway since this is in writing you won't believe it. No matter. Time will make us either seers or liars.