Posted on 03/02/2008 11:25:11 AM PST by jdm
The juxtaposition of events in Colombia and Venezuela give a compelling indication that Hugo Chavez has allied himself with FARC, the terrorist rebels just across his border. The day after the Columbians managed to kill FARC’s second in command, Chavez moved ten battalions to the border, threatening war against the US-allied government in Bogota, which he called “criminal”:
President Hugo Chavez on Sunday ordered 10 battalions of troops to the border with Colombia after Colombia’s military killed a top rebel leader.
Chavez told his defense minister: “move 10 battalions for me to the border with Colombia, immediately.” He also ordered the Venezuelan Embassy in Colombia closed and said all embassy personnel would be withdrawn.
The move threatens to bring the US into open conflict with Chavez for the first time. We have allied ourselves with the Colombian government to eradicate narco-traffickers as well as to help them eliminate the threat from FARC. The terrorist group still holds Americans, having kidnapped them years ago after a plane crash in territory under their control.
We saw a hint of this six weeks ago. Chavez demanded that Latin American nations recognize FARC (as well as a few other terrorist groups) as “legitimate armies” despite their track record of kidnapping and drug trafficking. As the Washington Post noted, even allies of Chavez balked at that notion. Now it looks as though Chavez will take Venezuela to war to support these terrorists, hoping to undermine President Alvaro Uribe and the democratic government in Colombia.
He’s taking his first steps to making himself a menace to the entire hemisphere rather than just to the Venezuelans.
If those battalions move across the border, Chavez had better expect a volley of cruise missiles at his command and control centers. The US will not allow Chavez to topple the elected government in Colombia. It would probably provide the only possible reason Washington would use military force against Chavez, and even this skeptical Congress would have little choice but to support the defense of an American ally under attack from a hostile nation.
Nothing that a few AC-130 gunships can’t take care of.
Virginia Tech Campus Crusade students are in Venezuela this week for a spring break missions trip. Please pray for their safety.
I think we need to dispatch a carrier group to the south immediately. Would come in handy to wipe out Hugo’s air force if he were silly enough to lauch them against Colombia.
Support of FARC would be smoke and mirrors IMO. I think Chavez’s close alliance with Iran is most telling. This could be an attempt to divide our Military forces as benefit to Iranian goals for the Middle East area.
As we send more Naval ships and support to the Middle East, specifically off Lebanon in support of our ally Israel currently under assault by Hamas, backed by Iran, Chavez timing of this action is quite suspect.
Thanks for posting. Very interesting. BTTT!
Chavez favors the leftists terrorists in Columbia. He claims they are not terrorists.
Our government would be pulling all our diplomats and warning all US citizens to get out, when you hear that you should worry. Chavez is an idiot, but he would like to stay in power.
I read this to mean Chavez is in his death throes.
Despite $100/barrel oil he has made such a shambles of the economy that even the poor are getting fed up with him. So, trying to rally the nation with a war is his only hope. I doubt the Venezuelan people are going to fall for it. You can stick a fork in Hugo, he’s done.
Ok, thank you.
I doubt any action we take against Chavez will require too much of our resources or time.
It would seem that Colombia finally woke up and realized that FARC really isn’t running the show from within Colombia. My guess is that the US finally started showing Colombia more of the big picture and helping to provide a different strategy for future operations. If someone were able to the number one guy in FARC...the organization might actually start to tumble as infighting occurs. We’ve see that with Hamas.
A couple Texas Rangers could take care of the problem.
Bush missed a big opportunity when the people of Venezuela revolted against Chavez and deposed him. He did nothing, and soon Chavez was back in power and killing off his enemies.
I suspect he was too ready to listen to the clintonoids in the CIA, who probably told him, “Don’t worry, Hugo is one of the good guys! Don’t intervene, whatever you do!”
That is exactly what I thought when I read this. Colombia is largely seen as our proxy (by Chavez, at any rate, not by the Colombians themselves) and I think that he knows that attacking it would get a response from us. Iran is definitely up to something in the ME, and if Hugo moves, it would definitely mean opening a war on two fronts.
We've done it before, of course, but we were a different country then.
“Virginia Tech Campus Crusade students are in Venezuela this week.”
And who was the brain behind this?
They knowingly went into a dangerous country, and now sympathy is wanted for them?
I don’t think so.
Hopefully they will learn a good lesson from this.
No sympathy is desired. Thanks.
They are on a Christian mission. They know the risks and will learn far more from their mission than you have appeared to in your life. Your comments to a concerned relative sucks.
Columbia’s army has been fighting for years, while hugo has purged his own army of anybody not boot-licking loyal to him. Stalin discovered the folly of this in 1941. Hugo may have a bigger army, but that doesn’t guarantee anything. Remember when China attacked Vietnam? They got spanked pretty hard. A similar shellacing could be the end of little hugo.
When push comes to shove, if it does, Exxon/Mobile will have all the contractors needed to squash Hugo’s wet dream.
For some reason they do not see the danger that Chavez and his monsters pose for their country.
I personally believe a war is coming and Chavez is waiting for the right time.
Such time as one of the peace loving cowardly Democrat candidates takes office.
I don’t care what kind of mission they are on. This is what gets our military folks killed…trying to save brainless people like this.
Let's hope Colombia can make them bleed enough to hurt Chavez himself.
Prayers for our family and all Colombians.
Not necessarily. We have Christian missionaries in all the hotspots...always have. I cannot recall the US going in for any missionary who found themselves in harms way in my lifetime. Can you?
I don’t think the missionaries are the brainless ones...
Christians go into tough places all the time. I know a group who was in Lebanon last year when the shooting started. No one went in to rescue them. It’s part of the understanding. I’m sure the Tech students will be fine.
Venezuelan Air Force TOE (per wikipedia)
The Air Force is organized into four fighter groups, one for each aircraft type in use:
* Group 11 with Mirage 50 planes
* Group 12 with F-5 planes
* Group 16 with F-16 planes
* Group 13 with Su-30MK2 planes
The spares for the F5s and F16s are embargoed and we don’t know how many will fly. The Mirage IIIs and Vs can probably be considered a minimal air-to-air threat but if armed with Exocet they could be a problem for carriers.
The 24 SU30s are a different story. They could make life brief but interesting for your ACs.
One thousand Colombian troops fought beside the US in Korea. If Colombia is attacked, overtly or covertly I think the US should support them. The question is, how can we do this without relieving pressure on both flanks of Iran? It would have to be brief and well coordinated with the Colombians and hopefully others.
Then there is the Brazilian question. Brazil and Venezuela have recently conducted joint military exercises. Lula and Hugo and pals and Lula could make it a protracted and costly conflict.
Aint nuthin simple.
If he comes up against America, defending their allies, he’ll wish he hadn’t been so bold or so stupid. Maybe a MOAB could find its way to his house.
The irony here is it's Virginia Tech students where their hotspot was the town of Blacksburg in rural Virginia. Danger is everywhere and one lives by faith. Thanks for your support and understanding.
Hey, drop that shovel!
“...how can we do this without relieving pressure on both flanks of Iran?”
Don’t we have about 36k troops in S. Korea? Would they (some of them) be available or well-trained enough to do the mission? Or do we need SF Ops in there?
Just asking.
If Chavez is stupid enough to move troops into Columbia, he might meet significant resistence...
Don't know. I would think we could pull whatever we have in the Balkans out but I don't know if pulling assets out of the ROK would encourage Little Kim to act out.
IF he enters Columbia, I hope we respond, and destroy his military in its entirety.
A couple? I am disappointed, used to be one was enough.
...And I hope he does. We need a good excuse to kill him.
C O L O M B I A.
Colombia is a country in South America
Columbia is a communist educational establishment in an otherwise rather nice part of New York.
Oh FARC! Chavez is siding with these FARC’S
Yes...watching Chavez’s bullet ridden body drug through the streets of Caracas would be great TV.
Lulu is even getting tired of his buddy Hugo and now that Brazil just hit a HUGE discovery off their coast of Oil, the business community and Pres Lulu De Silva are not in need to Hugo’s oil so much anymore. Brazil is becoming an economic powerhouse in SA and Hugo is taking Venezuela in the other direction. I would not worry a wit about Brazil becoming involved in this.
Good to know. I haven’t been following all that closely (I don’t have cable and I’m boycotting Univision news until they get English subtitles).
Brazilians tend to think of South America as them and all these annoying little countries who can’t talk right. I don’t see them following Venezuela as the dominant power in the region.
Lula is, if nothing else, not a nut job. If he could help reign in Hugo that would be great.
Colombia is a country in South America, with a democratically elected government, besieged by Marxists.
Columbia is a university in New York, run by a Marxist oligarchy.
First place you drop Airborne troops are the oil fields.
You had to ask?
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" Matthew 28:19
I agree, having spent most of my life shuttling between this country (Israel) and the US, I can tell you that I always understood the risk—in fact, I have almost been taken out by two missles and a a suicide attack...however, I always thought that if G-d can’t take care of me there, where he can. The last 4 trips I have taken my wife, yea and two the times we were under missle attacks—am I bad?
Really? The traitorous demscum who run Congress wouldn’t hang an ally out to dry? Don’t make me laugh.
Expext the demscum to use their equally traitorous allies in the MSM to start vilifying the govt of Columbia...
Colombia PIMF
How did we let that coup fail? CIA snipers go to work please. Let the media and Europe cry about it.
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