Posted on 03/04/2008 6:50:37 AM PST by DogWings
It is the nature of socialist countries to try to expand and attack their neighbors. North Vietnam took South Vietnam. China took Tibet. The Soviet Union took everything it could. So it makes me wonder if Chavez isn’t looking for a reason to invade Columbia. He certainly has been building up his military for some reason, and now has taken to open threats against his neighbors.
(Excerpt) Read more at allamericanblogger.com ...
An equally interesting question might be:
Is the porky one, being egged into one?
Yes he is.
Of course, Clinton could have taken on the terrorists, if he'd wanted to -- but he either didn't have the wit or the stones to make that move.
Perhaps Chavez is making a play to be considered a great dictator.
we need to hire a hit man to go down and take him out. Not out to dinner either.
A war? Only in a rhetorical sense. He lost at the ballot box on his last “reform” vote fiasco. He’s just another leftist guerrilla in a sea of leaderless coca users.
It is the nature of dictators to start wars to try to make the people temporarily forget how miserable they are.
Not with us.
But he’s definitely trying to “destabilize” others in that region. He stands to gain from it.
Exactly. He wants everything except a war. Hopefully someone will kick his ass soon. I know it wont be us, we don’t have the spine to punish dictators after Iraq.
Colombia has a population of 45 million, an 80,000 strong well-equipped military that has been well-trained by an officer corps that has participated in joint exercises with the US military.
We are helping to weed out the leftist coke dealers. We are indirectly involved already.
Dang, but you're a whiny little fella. Really, seriously, 2nd-grade type whiny.
Yes, indirectly we’re involved.
I think you are right. He was smacked down with his president for life ploy. He sees his control fading and needs something to cause the people to band together in support of him. Before it is over, he will destroy Venezuela and the countries around him.
GW Bush I berlieve would at the very least, remove him from Columbia...
From National Public Radio (NPR):
"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been visiting countries such as China, Iran and Russia as part of an effort to build a 'strategic alliance' of interests not beholden to the United States. He considers the United States his arch enemy.":
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5729764
From the Russian News and Information Agency:
"'I am determined to expand relations with Russia,' Chavez, known as an outspoken critic of what he calls the United States' unilateralism, told the Russian leader, adding that his determination stemmed from their shared vision of the global order.":
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060727/51913498.html
From the Sino-Russian Joint Statement of April 23, 1997:
"The two sides [China and Russia] shall, in the spirit of partnership, strive to promote the multipolarization of the world and the establishment of a new international order."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI29Ag01.html
Putin warns Kosovo will 'come back to knock' the West, as NATO envoy lashes out
"Moscow might be forced to use "brute military force" to maintain respect on the world scene."
The Associated Press
Published: February 22, 2008
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin on Friday issued a sharp warning to the West about the consequences of recognizing Kosovo's independence, saying the decision would "come back to knock them on the head."
The comments, made during an informal meeting of leaders from ex-Soviet republics, were the strongest by the Russian leader since Sunday when Kosovo made its declaration of independence from Serbia.
They followed statements made earlier Friday by Russia's envoy to NATO, who warned the alliance against overstepping its mandate in Kosovo and said Moscow might be forced to use "brute military force" to maintain respect on the world scene.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/22/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-Kosovo.php
Putin will be long-serving, powerful premier
By Michael Stott Thu Feb 14, 2008
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he intended to become a powerful and long-serving prime minister after leaving the Kremlin but rejected suggestions he would dictate orders to his likely successor.
Putin, giving his last annual news conference before his second term ends in May, said he fully trusted the Kremlin's candidate for president, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and would have no problems working with him.
Medvedev enjoys blanket coverage on state-controlled media and is widely expected to win a big poll victory next month.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080214/wl_nm/russia_putin_dc_6
Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the collapse of the [former] Soviet Union:
the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'
"World democratic opinion has yet to realize the alarming implications of President Vladimir Putin's State of the Union speech on April 25, 2005, in which he said that the collapse of the Soviet Union represented the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'
http://www.hooverdigest.org/053/beichman.html
From the Sino-Russian Joint Statement of April 23, 1997:
"The two sides [China and Russia] shall, in the spirit of partnership, strive to promote the multipolarization of the world and the establishment of a new international order."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI29Ag01.html
Russia and China prepare for war against the United States
June 4, 2005:
"Growing ties between Moscow and Beijing in the past 18 months is an important geopolitical event that has gone practically unnoticed. China's premier, Wen Jiabao, visited Russia in September 2004. In October 2004, President Vladimir Putin visited China. During the October meeting, both China and Russia declared that Sino-Russian relations had reached "unparalleled heights". In addition to settling long-standing border issues, Moscow and Beijing agreed to hold joint military exercises in 2005. This marks the first large-scale military exercises between Russia and China since 1958.
The joint military exercises complement a rapidly growing arms trade between Moscow and Beijing. China is Russia's largest buyer of military equipment." :
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GF04Ad07.html
Russia, China in first joint war games
Reuters, Aug, 2005:
"Relations between China and Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, were strained by decades of mistrust during the Cold War, but the two nuclear powers have found much common ground in recent years and the military relationship has been blossoming, Reuters points out. Both are leading members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which in July called for U.S.-led troops to fix a date to pull out of bases in Central Asia. Russia is also a major supplier of weapons to China." :
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411366/601479
Russia, China flex muscles in joint war games
Reuters: Aug 17, 2007
CHEBARKUL, Russia (Reuters) - Russia and China staged their biggest joint exercises on Friday but denied this show of military prowess could lead to the formation of a counterweight to NATO.
"Today's exercises are another step towards strengthening the relations between our countries, a step towards strengthening international peace and security, and first and foremost, the security of our peoples," Putin said.
Fighter jets swooped overhead, commandos jumped from helicopters on to rooftops and the boom of artillery shells shook the firing range in Russia's Ural mountains as two of the largest armies in the world were put through their paces.
The exercises take place against a backdrop of mounting rivalry between the West, and Russia and China for influence over Central Asia, a strategic region that has huge oil, gas and mineral resources.
Russia's growing assertiveness is also causing jitters in the West. Putin announced at the firing range that Russia was resuming Soviet-era sorties by its strategic bomber aircraft near NATO airspace.
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-29030120070817?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
U.S. Navy Intercepts Russian Bombers Flying Near Ships
Monday, February 11, 2008
WASHINGTON (Associated Press) U.S. fighter planes intercepted two Russian bombers flying unusually close to an American aircraft carrier in the western Pacific during the weekend, The Associated Press has learned.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330362,00.html
Conquest is how absolutist regimes survive. They typically cannot produce enough to maintain themselves and must survive on loot from conquered lands. The Soviet Empire lived off of Eastern European gold for 45 years then collapsed when its conquests of third world countries cost it more than it could steal. Cuba has survived as a near corpse because it has not conquered anybody. Its foreign adventures have been stymied or were as mercenaries for the Soviets.
Well, Venezuela, anyway. Colombia can probably hold its own pretty well.
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