Posted on 03/07/2008 10:11:01 AM PST by ElCapitanAmericaLives
Any from the Clinton pardon list yet?
Way to go for the last of nose candy. :)
Excellent points.
Uribe to El Puerco...”go ahead Hugo...make my day”.
Fox announced the #1 Manuel Marulanda of FARC is dead. Anyone hear this?
No, haven’t heard that. Are you sure???
It does appear that Uribe is not intimidated by the bluster of petty dictators. Hmm, is that a lesson for any other country?
Colombia's security forces are wisely wasting no time in utilizing that information before the tracks go cold.
The events of the past few weeks reveal a number of interesting things:
(1) FARC are, as the Colombian government has been saying, only a few thousands strong.
(2) FARC's ability to stay in business is due to aid from foreign governments - they could not survive without active participation from foreigners.
(3) Other Latin American states were using FARC as an instrument to destabilize their neighbor and now they are livid that their secrets are being revealed.
(4) If Bolivar was Colombia's Washington, Uribe is Colombia's Reagan.
Below is the make up of the 3 countries military. As you can see Colombia would have no problems dealing with both countries at the same time if they have to. We can also give them some really neat help that would bloody up Hugo real good.
(Reuters) - A crisis is growing in the Andean region with Ecuador and Venezuela breaking off diplomatic ties with Bogota after Colombian troops killed a top rebel in Ecuador. Here are some facts about the dispute:
* With 178,000 soldiers, Colombia's army is more than twice the size of the Venezuelan and Ecuadorean armies combined. Colombian troops and police are experienced fighting rebels, paramilitaries and drug traffickers. U.S. trainers and billions of dollars in aid from Washington have bolstered their military intelligence and combat capabilities.
* Aided by soaring oil prices, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has spent heavily on military hardware recently. After Washington blocked arms sales to Caracas, Chavez purchased Russian-made Sukhoi high-performance fighter jets, attack helicopters and 100,000 new AK-103 rifles.
* Analysts say most of Venezuela's fleet of U.S.-made F-16 fighters is not fully operational after Washington banned sales of spare parts and upgrades. Its pilots are still training on the new Russian jet fighters.
Here is a look at the three military forces by the numbers.
Colombia Ecuador Venezuela
ARMY 178,000 37,000 34,000 Combat tanks 12 +180 197 Armed vehicles 135 +90 30 Armed transport 192 130 290 Artillery, mortars 639 +156 347 Helicopters 41 30 26
NAVY 22,000 5,500 18,300 Submarines 4 2 2 Frigates, corvette-class 4 8 6 Patrol boats 179 15 15 Aircraft 9 11 16 Helicopters 3 10 14 Marine infantry 14,000 1,700 7,800
AIR FORCE 7,000 4,000 7,000 Combat aircraft 52 56 125 Transport 24 23 55 Training 41 14 51 Helicopters 61 15 80 Air Defense/SAMs 0 +165 +10 Artillery +30 260 +228
Sources: Jane's The Military Balance 2006, www.globalsecurity.org, Reuters.
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/OliverNorth/2008/03/07/a_despots_distraction
Thanks for the figures. That might be why Chavez is backpeddling now?
Chavez won’t attack.....
He’s a mouth fighter, who knows his butt would get kicked up to his ears if he if tried anything violent.......
However — the stupid $&^&%*%^%*%% may be stupid enough to give someone the justification to come into Venezuela and drag him to the nearest gallows or shoot him on the spot.....
Hopefully, we have a leader somewhere in our government that would see this as an opportunity to take Hugo down a peg or two, and make sure Colombia has whatever hardware they need to spank that A-hole.
Neither are Chavez's "boot fillers" a match for the Colombians...
Force to force, my money is on a full blown retreat in panic by both the Ecuadorian and Venezuelan forces...
Someone said the Venezuelan army couldn't take the field without their whores or a caterer.
The rumor also exists that there are Officers within the Venezuelan military who despise Chavez and prevented him from becoming "President for Life" by threatening a coup....
The Officers could make things interesting --- soon!
I also doubt that China or the Islamists will allow Chavez to put their long range plans for the area at risk by initiating a war that could lead to the overthrow of the current "leaders" who are "friendly fools" at the moment.....
Two Marines from my son’s group just went through and graduated from the Colombian Lacero course. They have a real well trained group....we trained them.
I think Colombia's Lincoln might be a better analogy. This 40-odd year battle against FARC has roots going back years earlier, to La Violencia and before. FARC was originally a Liberal Party guerrilla group that wouldn't go along with the accord between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party that ended La Violencia in the '50s.
Crushing FARC would be akin in the nation's history to Lincoln saving the Union.
Try more than 40 years -- FARC has been battling the Colombian government since the '60s.
The army is top notch, though, you're right.
A very astute observation.
Imagine if the US today was still dealing with 10,000 or so Confederate holdouts hiding out in national parks and rural areas, taking money from China and Iran, and dealing in meth and kidnapping to keep their insurgency going?
Unthinkable in the USA, daily life in Colombia.
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