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Hehe against Isreali pilots and their own advanced avionics??? That would be a great pay per view show.

I'd like to read about it in the papers, but paying a good $49.95 to see a white streak zoom into the horizon then see a little flash like a mosquito hitting the skeeter trap, is well, not worth the expense.

One thing that is bothersome, if Iran turns the F-16s into pilotless bomber drones. If an F-16 is flying low and fast and not responding to radio or Friend or Foe requests, it would only take a few minutes for the F-16 to reach a target across the Persian Gulf. US chain of command might not respond fast enough to the questionable threat. Assymetric attacks like that would only work once, but the first and only wave could cause serious damage to US bases in Qatar or elsewhere within close range of Iran.

The decision announced Monday may be largely symbolic because Chavez has been buying the bulk of his weapons, including attack and transport helicopters, patrol boats and military transport airplanes, from Russia and Spain.

The first batch of 33 Russian helicopters arrived in Venezuela last month, and 33,000 of the 100,000 Russian Kalashnikov assault rifles that Chavez bought are expected this month. Caracas is also finalizing a deal with Spain to purchase eight military patrol boats and 10 military transport planes, and ramping up the training of a 2.5-million-member militia to fight a ``war of resistance'' against any U.S. invaders.

But the U.S. ban underlined Washington's increasingly sour view of Chavez as a ruler who has been undermining democracy in his oil-exporting country, regularly attacking the Bush administration and trying to export his leftist-populist ideology to

"F-16s into pilotless bomber drones"

Iran doesn't need F-16s to do that.

Osama Bin Laden didn't need terrorists to high jack airlines to topple the WTC and attack the Pentagon (and the attempted White House target). The money that OBL had/has is enough to buy or charter an entire fleet of airliners fully fulled using his credit alone (from one of his false shell company) if he so desired. But OBL didn't charter empty flights. Instead, his terror cells murdered innocent civilian passengers.

Why?

OBL's intention was to start a clash of civilizations. Though he caused a lot of friction, the 9/11 attacks didn't produce the intended response OBL desired.

Chavez wants to sell useless F-16s to Iran.

Why?

Because those who are inspired and most likely possessed by Satan want the world of men to rip each other to shreds. When the hearts of men refuse to murder their fellow brother (and other such sin), then Satan can only spread misery...like drive up the cost of living (price of oil). Jesus IS won, He's always been in control, and He operates on His Time schedule--not ours...and certainly not on Satan's!

Very plausible outcome: Chavez will not get the outcome he intends. Neither will those who hold Iranians in a choke hold. The world of men really don't want to war, and sin is losing it's appeal. Economically, the free world is throwing off the yolk of imperial criminal syndicates. We don't have to buy energy or products from those who make it their agenda to pervert, dominate, and murder.

And who will the buy the cocaine grown in South America when our border is getting tighter and tighter? Europe? Chavez' paranoia is always sniffing the end (even if he's managed not to sniff his continent's capital crop). He's probably selling the F-16s just to keep as much money in his pocket as possible. He knows that Americans won't launch a first strike and he doesn't have any need for nuclear energy capabilities (given Venezuela's oil) to make himself a "WMD" target for a first strike.

So, Chavez isn't a military threat...just an global sized economic thug. His F-16s are useless even if they were well maintained. He needs the money to keep the corruption going. Venezuelans are even tired of their own domestically grown criminal activity and it takes a lot of money to keep the cops paid off. His biggest fear is probably his own people going on strike again since that would be his only real threat.

When the next national strike happens, he's going to run as fast as he can (perhaps to Cuba), and before he runs, he'll sell off everything he can scrap. He'll probably even sell all the "nationalized" equipment he stole in the first place. Therefore, the rest of the world (including the now globalized Chinese) had better hold Chavez's wealth in a guarded bank account to keep him from laundering/transferring that wealth away from judicial authorities that will return the stolen wealth after Chavez runs.

For example:

1 Chavez steals/nationalizes a European/American oil company.

2 Sensing that his people have had enough of him, he liquidates the oil company by selling it to China.

3 Rather than China risk losing their investment, they buy what Chavez sells, but he has to keep his "profit" in a Beijing bank where it won't leave for (pick a number) of years.

4 Venezuelans go on strike and Chavez retires in Cuba while trying to take as much of his wealth with him as possible...except for what the Chinese still hold of his attempted "profit" in their bank.

5 The new and legitimate authority negotiates with Chinese and the former owners of the oil company for a just settlement. This puts the Chinese in the "good guy" category for returning stolen property (or compensating the original owners) and it gives them an "in" to the South American market for things other than the low quality military equipment other communists have pawned off onto suffering nations. Also, they don't lose their money because they still have it in their own Chinese bank. To fork over the cash would risk losing the entire investment into one of Chavez's foreign accounts.

I bring up "Chinese" but it could be any other nation willing to risk investment in Venezuela.