[realpatriot]

Not smart to alienate your generals.

[Bender2]

Re: From 800 to 1,000 colonels, brigadier generals and division generals of the Venezuelan armed forces are relegated to their homes, with no responsibilities or command whatsoever, mainly because they are at odds with indoctrination and the attempts at turning the military into a socialist army, modeled after the Cuban army, according to a report of US daily newspaper Miami Herald.

Gadzooks! Me thinks... that sounds like the US Armed Services after nObama and Commissar Michelle are elected!

[popdonnelly]

Great! Let’s support a coup. We would have the additional pleasure of hearing American leftists scream when their hero, Chavez, gets kicked out.

[bpjam]

Unfortunately, the US cannot do anything covertly to assist those disaffected military officers or one of the socialists in our CIA, State or Congress will leak our activities to the Chavez-bots on Capitol Hill and the MSM and Chavez will hold press conferences about how the US is planning on overthrowing his country (which will cause oil to go up another $10 bbl). Oh, and Chavez will jail the dissafected officers. Just like Castro did in Cuba.

We do not have a foreign policy because we cannot keep secrets which aren’t in line with our enemies wishes.

[hosepipe]

Hugo is dumb as a post.. These Generals will become the underground.. These guys better be running for the hills.. Hugo will have them shot post haste.. Chavez is create a very qualified OPPOSITION.. HELLLOOOO... CIA operatives please go the the white phone in the lobby.. ...

[marron]

the alleged relationship between the Venezuelan government and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) has demoralized the army officers and soldiers, because the guerrillas have been the traditional foes of the Venezuelan military.

Its not an "alledged" relationship. Chavez is FARC. The day Chavez took power, FARC captured Miraflores and Venezuela itself. Its just taken awhile for people to figure it out.

Chavez was on FARC's dime before he took power, and he's been repaying the favor in spades from day one. And Venezuela went to war with the Colombia the day Chavez took the oath of office. They didn't need the hard drives to tell them that. FARC is supplied with Venezuelan weapons, financed with Venezuelan money, they hide on Venezuelan territory, keep their high value hostages in Venezuela, their leaders keep apartments in Caracas and travel with Venezuelan passports. They attack from the Venezuelan side of the river with Venezuelan air support. They are in Chavez' inner circle, and are on the dais during Vz military ceremonies.

There is no alleged about it.

[tlb]

>>>From 800 to 1,000 colonels, brigadier generals and division generals of the Venezuelan armed forces

“And in terms of troop strength, Venezuela’s 34,000-soldier active-duty army still lags behind the armies of Argentina and Brazil, with about 41,400 and 200,000 members respectively, according to GlobalSecurity.org, a Web site that compiles data on military topics.”

Not quibbling about the basic story of a dictator afraid of his generals, but the numbers don’t sound right. I suppose it’s possible that one in 34 Venezuelan soldiers is a colonel or better but that seems top-heavy, even for South America. And that’s just the “unreliable” ones.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2007/070225-venezuela-arms.htm