chavez = the RAT that Roared!!!
Posted on 02/12/2005 7:28:32 AM PST by David1
CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has long been known for his harsh anti-Bush rhetoric. But now he's stepping up military plans and weapons purchases to match his combative tone, and he is worrying U.S. policymakers.
Within the past two weeks the leftist populist leader has called himself a ''socialist'' and ''Fidelista,'' and offered a muscular new course for his self-described ''revolution'' on behalf of Venezuela's poor.
''I propose that we move to the offensive, just like the imperialists have moved to the bloody and ruthless offensive. If you don't believe me, look at Iraq . . .'' Chávez told a news conference in Brazil late last month.
''We have to embrace socialism as a thesis,'' he continued, in what observers said was his most direct public reference to his socialist views. He later added that any attack on Cuba or Venezuela ``would be an attack on both.''
Chávez has called President Bush the devil and worse, and he regularly blames Washington for a 2002 coup attempt against him. Critics brand him a would-be dictator, but Chávez has won two democratic elections and fended off a recall referendum just last year.
Still, his latest comments worry U.S. policymakers, mostly because they coincide with his push to obtain new weaponry and forge a new national military doctrine that would prepare his country for a war of resistance against a possible U.S. invasion.
Simultaneously, Chávez has said he is placing the 50,000 soldiers of the military reserve directly under his control and organizing his civilian supporters into armed militias to be known as ``popular defense units.''
OIL A COMPLICATION
Although U.S. officials have dismissed the idea of a military attack on Venezuela, they have expressed concern over Chávez' new stance since Venezuela remains the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States.
Earlier this week, the State Department's assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, Roger Noriega, challenged Chávez's efforts to create the militias and his purchase of 40 Russian helicopters and 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles.
Noriega told a TV interviewer that the weapons could end up in ''the hands of some criminal and irregular groups'' -- an apparent reference to leftist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia with whom Chávez has been accused of sympathizing.
Vice President José Vicente Rangel responded swiftly to Noriega's comments, saying they had ''the deliberate goal of provoking Venezuela'' and that the new guns would replace old weaponry.
The heightened U.S.Venezuela tensions coincide with new strategies for bilateral relations in both countries.
After years of Washington's trying to avoid confrontations with Chávez, a new U.S. ''policy review'' is expected soon to recommend trying to isolate Venezuela from its neighbors.
''We've tried to establish common ground with the Venezuelan government,'' Noriega said in the television interview. ``But, unfortunately, President Chávez has sabotaged our efforts.''
For his part, Chávez has been trying to extricate Venezuela from the U.S. economic sphere of influence by forging ties with countries such as China and Argentina and hinting that he may sell Venezuela's U.S. gasoline and refining business, Citgo.
But it is Venezuela's attempt to procure arms and create militias that has made the U.S. government jumpy.
''Even if these are to replace the older weapons, where are these older models going to go?'' wondered one State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity. ``They're old. It doesn't mean they're useless.''
Other deals include the purchase of the 40 helicopters and the possible purchase of 50 Russian-made MiG 29 fighter jets. Media reports from Washington say the United States has petitioned Russia to rethink the sales.
While some officials worry that the AK-47s could end up in Colombian rebels' hands, others believe the weapons acquisition is a reasonable part of Chávez's shift in military doctrine.
As described by Gen. Melvin López, head of the National Defense Council (Venezuela's equivalent to the National Security Council), the new doctrine would focus on an ''asymmetric war'' -- a conflict between a superior and an inferior fighting force, like those in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Under the new doctrine, the only way to fend off a superior enemy is by using guerrilla tactics -- hence Chávez's efforts to create militia groups and bulk up reserve units.
In recent statements, López said asymmetrical war would involve ``the participation of the whole population; adapting ourselves to the geopolitical [situation] of the country.''
Chávez recently said the new popular defense units would comprise 10 to 500 members each and would fall outside the normal military hierarchy and directly under the president's command, in effect creating Chávez's own, private revolutionary army. They are to be organized ``in the barrio, in the factory.''
If the ''imperialists'' intervene in Venezuela, Chávez added, ``they will face the people . . . ready to defend their sovereignty, their country and their dignity.''
OTHERS' TECHNIQUES
Venezuela's new strategy comes from the same roots as 'the prolonged popular war of Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap in Asia, and `the war of all the people' in Cuba,' '' said one of the Chávez government's ideologues, Mexico-based academic Heinz Dieterich.
Cuba has long projected the ''war of all the people'' not only as the strategy it would use to wear down and eventually defeat a possible U.S. invasion but as the kind of aggressive posture that might even deter a U.S. attack.
That is not far from the vision of Gen. Alberto Müeller, a studied military tactician as well as a former senator and Chávez campaign aide. Müeller is expected to be named to the special government commission that will put the country's new military doctrine in writing.
In an interview with The Herald, Müeller said the new doctrine of ''decentralized defense'' was to signal the United States not to attack.
January 21, 2005
During a recent South American tour, a U.S. Senate delegation showed how futile it is to patronize despots. Members struggled to invent common bonds with Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, and then promised what they couldn’t deliver.
In Caracas on January 10, Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) called on President Hugo Chávez, offering to repair testy relations with Washington if he would assure oil exports to the United States and cooperate with U.S. counternarcotics efforts in Colombia.
~snip~
At Rice's confirmation hearing these three Senators---all on the Committee---really pushed her to promise to make nice to Chavez. It caught the attention of we who were watching, that's for sure. Dodd's time at the hearing starts around here and he got right to Venezuela. Rice declined to say Chavez was someone we could work with.
The Communists will keep trying even though their ideas are throughly discredited. Not able to win with ideas, they lie, cheat, murder, imprison, torture, etc., until they subdue the opposition.
Never forget that is what the Democrats have become in this country, especially Hillary. Don't forget the law breaking, the lying under oath, the threats and intimidation of perceived enemies, the FBI files, the private investigators, the incorporation of Larry Flynt into their efforts, and the many suspicious murders during the Clinton/Gore administrations. Nothing has changed. We are at war for our lives and our way of life.
chavez = the RAT that Roared!!!
One of the things that hurt the Soviet Union in the 1980's was the deregulation of petroleum pricing by the Reagan Administration. The dramatic increase in supply dropped the price of oil from $45 to $12. This ruined a reliable source of hard currency for the bankrupt Soviets, and hurt their ability to provide oil to client states at a subsidized price.
Right now, a lot of Chavez' domestic support results from social programs funded by oil revenues. Perhaps if our government permitted drilling in ANWR, Chavez' support could be undermined.
Instead of lasting three seconds in a US onslaught he will actually last FIVE seconds!
We need to rethink high speed rail along the eastern corridor and other options that will eventually lessen our dependence on oil. Flywheel technology is an example of something that is waiting for advances in material science to become economically feasible for mass use. Solar power that relies on batteries will never be a viable solution. A long life reasonably priced flywheel energy storage unit would make solar power more cost effective and lead to rapid growth in installations.
Only by lessening the demand for oil and gas and driving the price into the basement can we remove the potential for mischief from those with oil. Energy independence is the solution.
Watch Guyana. Venezuela has a colorable claim to the western half of it. It's been a low level dispute for over a century. Hugo might see it as an easy win that would sure up his lagging numbers at home. Of course, such a naked violation of sovereignty would make it easy for the US then to intervene.
he is getting bad advise from his parrot...
i hope he invades it. just the pretext we needed...
Okay, goodpoint. Is that on the road to Chiapas, the Tzotz-choj Autonomous Zone?
If we stopped the War on Varios Drugas, Chavez would be easy pickings. As long as we keep the narco trade black it empowers thugs like he and Castro.
Anyway, much like Saddam's 19th province claim on Kuwait and the Argies claim on The Falklands, the history of this border is murky enough to encourage Chavez. After all, if he moves in the near term, he'd have a pretty solid SA block behind him or neutral. But the geography makes me almost hope he tries something conventional, rather than the more covert, and successful, means he's now using in Bolivia and Colombia. Park a carrier or two off the coast and watch Hugo's pricey new toys explode.
Hugo's got oil. He's Castro's new sugar daddy. Fidel tried to use drug revenue to replace the USSR's backing, but it just wasn't getting the job done. The Leftists are gaining ground in corners of LA where drugs are but a secondary issue.
I think you are onto something. I will watch with great interest. All of what you said, plus, Guyana has a reputation for attracting low-life-loser-KoolAid-drinkers.
I also find your use of the word, "colorable", fascinating in this context.
Not Castro. The illegal "right-wing narcoista" trade throughout Central America. Creates social and political dynamics that allow a Chavez standing. Massive corruption among the authorities.
...sounds a lot like the Democracks in Wash State, too, come to think of it.
the houston chronicle has an article today that chavez is inviting conocophilips in for an oil deal.
"propose that we move to the offensive, just like the imperialists have moved to the bloody and ruthless offensive. If you don't believe me, look at Iraq."
If nothing else, it has been worth the price to see these little dogturd despots wet their pants when they think about President Bush and the US military. Chavez, Jong Il, Gaddafi, the Iranian mullahs, all quaking in their silken slippers.
Buying 40 helicopters and 50 Mig 29's? That'll help the "lower masses" plenty.
Baloney - poverty has shot up since this thug got his hands on the oil. His oil benefits a few cronies on the ground and most of the billions are in Cayman island banks or safe with fidel who's suddenly gotten a bunch of billions no one knows how he managed to get. There are gonna be some big news stories out there coming soon about chavez's massive oil ripoff. By their results do you judge them and right now, despite record-high oil prices, venezuela's poor are poorer than ever.
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