Posted on 06/26/2007 5:39:45 AM PDT by cll
Is Puerto Rico really a part of the United States? And if it is, is it worth defending from attack? That's the emerging issue right now because Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has just made his first threat on the U.S . commonwealth as he seeks to acquire advanced submarines.
Chavez is heading to Russia in the next few days, to discuss the purchase of five kilo-class submarines, and possibly four more advanced amur-class subs. There are questions as to how he would be able to finance them as well as how obtain the advanced training to bring them online, but there is no question from his statments that he wants them. Saturday, he laid it all out as AFP reported:
"They're making all this noise because Venezuela is going to buy some submarines. And I told them, 'Why not?'" Chavez said without confirming or denying the rumor.
"We've got half a million square kilometers of (Caribbean) sea, to the north, we've got Puerto Rico, in other words the empire (as he calls the United States), and France in the western Caribbean islands. We've got a huge sea," he said apparently alluding the use to which Venezuela's submarines would be put.
If Chavez succeeds in getting his hands on these submarines, the broad picture is that he will have the biggest submarine force in South America, bigger than Brazil, Argentina or Colombia, with a patrol range extending from Halifax, Canada to Montevideo, Uruguay. He will be in a position to patrol the entire Gulf of Mexico out of U.S. naval surveillance unless the battery-operated submarines surface for air, something they only need to do once a day, in the case of the Kilo-class subs and perhaps less with the more advanced models. The only way to monitor their moves will be to catch them exiting ports, a difficult task.
What's most disturbing is not the range, though, but that Chavez seems to want explicitly to direct them at Puerto Rico and France's two Overseas Departments of Martinique and Guadaloupe, both of which, in U.S . terms, have the status of states.
Although there are many islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf Of Mexico, and many colonial powers, it's significant that Chavez alluded to the U.S.'s and France's prime presences there. In the past he's threatened Netherlands and its overseas territories, and he's always hated Britain, but now he seems to have singled out France. While Chavez's antipathy to the U.S. is well-known, what's less well-known is that France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has an interest in the region and a clear understanding about Chavez. He's stepped up his ties to Venezuela's battered neighbor, Colombia, and probably will become more active in the region as Chavez's aggression steps up. Chavez knows this, and wants to throw out a few threat to France and the U.S. now.
Chavez's threats against the U.S. (and France) signal a first shot in a new level of confrontation with the West. Gone are the days of his devil speeches, he now seems to want to only communicate through weaponry and offering explicit plans as to how he intends to use them - starting with Puerto Rico. We better be paying attention.
They’re right. The USN has other issues right now and can’t spend all its time interdicting Venezuela’s sub fleet. But, if his subs launch a torpedo or missile at friendly ship or drop a mine near a friendly port, we will find out about it and then it is all over for his subs, him and for Venezuela.
Meanwhile it costs a substantial sum of money to keep the his sub fleet maintained, and even more to keep it at sea. The only plus for him is that keeping his subs at sea works up his crews.
Like it or not Chavez and Venezuela have a right to purchase or build such weaponry as they deem necessary for their own defense. If I were Hugo, I'd be working more building infrastructure and promoting industry, so I could build it at home rather than in the USSR, er, Russia. But that's me.
Actually, they lease it. And they don't have any control over the Caribbean approaches to it. I'm not even sure the Chinese would be all that upset about destabilizing the western hemisphere, if they could get a patsy like Hugo to take all the risks.
As for buying submarines...let the jerk buy all he can afford. Each one is a Navy Cross waiting to happen for some deserving USN skipper.
Yeah, they wouldn't stand a chance in a stand up fight, but that's not why ya buy subs.
I'm thinking more in the nature of nation-sponsored terrorism. A single strike against a freighter in the gulf would close down shipping traffic for a month, maybe. And by the time the Navy was on scene, the sub could be sitting back in port in Caracas or Maracaibo, looking innocent. Until the next mission.
The effect on the economy of the hemisphere would be devastating, and it would require a full wartime response.
And don't be too quick to hand out the Navy Crosses to the commanding officers... it could also mean posthumous purple hearts for entire crews of smaller craft like destroyers. And as an ex-sonarman (USN '66-'70), finding and killing a sub is far from a sure thing.
I mean, it would be swell to blow one up, but let's not let our bravado overcome our common sense, or ya might get to visit Davey Jones' Locker.
I would find a war between France and Venezuela highly amusing entertainment.
Ah, Victory Games!
Chavez thought he needed Bobbleheads vs Bubbleheads !
He has a surplus of those !
Actually I have to disagree. IMO the French have more b@lls than the (current lot of) Brits do. Goodness, not only have the Brits been cutting defense spending like wars and aggression were a thing of the past, but the term 'Euro-weenie' is starting to shift more and more to them. Which nation BTW stood by and let their sailors get bl@@dy abducted by the Iranians (with reports stating that one of the soldiers was even crying when his IPod was taken away)? Those sailors were taken with no resistance whatsoever (and it was shown by the Aussies just how easy it was to fend the Iranians off). As for the French - they have been anti-American over the last several decades, but that doesn't necessarily make them weak. And when the need arises they can do things that the Brits could never think of doing (e.g. when the French sunk a Greenpeace ship)
Anyways, the Brits are far closer allies than the French are (although with Blair going out in the UK, and Sarkozy coming in in France .....who knows), but the whole adage that the French flag equals surrender while the British one is a bastion of fortitude is starting to look a bit frayed on the sides. Substitute British Flag with Aussie flag and i will agree. For now the UK is one of the most PC places on the globe by far.
As as for Chavez taking martinique ....that would be a major mistake. The French may be anti-American frog-eating cheese-loving folk, but they simply have too many ways of making someone like Chavez suffer.
Culturally part of Latin America.
BTW: Good article.
“but they are US citizens and have honorably and ably served in the US Armed Forces since 1898”
Thank you for noting that.
They have my faith and confidence too - but the latest generation of non-nuclear subs are very, very quiet. We have been training against one we leased from Germany(?) for a while now, but I don’t like over confidence.
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