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Chavez vows revenge for Falklands war
The Sunday Times Online (UK) ^ | September 2, 2007 | Martin Arostegui

Posted on 09/02/2007 1:51:41 PM PDT by Jeff Head

In a new outburst of antiwestern sabre-rattling, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has threatened Britain with “revenge” for the Falklands war of 1982. The belligerent Latin American leftist warned last week that his recent build-up of sophisticated Russian and Iranian weapons would be used to destroy the British fleet if it attempted to return to the South Atlantic.

Speaking on his weekly television show Alo Presidente (Hello, Mr President), Chavez denounced what he described as Britain’s “illegal occupation” of the Falklands and repeated his call for a regional military alliance against Britain and the United States.

“If we had been united in the last war, we could have stopped the old empire,” Chavez said, as he gesticulated to maps showing how Venezuelan aircraft and submarines would intercept British warships. “Today we could sink the British fleet.”

Chavez has often expressed support for Argentina’s claim to the Falklands, but his latest broadside was notable for both its antiBritish vitriol and its unprecedented threats. He declared that British history was “stained with the blood of South America’s indigenous people” and demanded revenge for the “cowardly” sinking of the General Belgrano, the Argentine cruiser.

Western diplomats have long grown used to harangues from Chavez, who announced this weekend that he would negotiate with guerrillas holding dozens of hostages in Colombia, including three US contractors and Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian abducted as she campaigned for president in 2002. But US and British officials have recently become more concerned by his willingness to lavish billions of dollars from Venezuela’s soaring oil income on military capabilities.

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: argentina; atlanticcrisis; brokenelavator; chavez; clown; delusions; falklands; fatheadclown; geopolitics; hugochavez; navyforum; royalnavy; usnavy; venezuela; worldwariii
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To: Dr.Deth

I guess Hugo has forgotten how the governments in South America have and continue to kill the indigenous folks...


161 posted on 09/02/2007 4:48:02 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four fried chickens and a coke)
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To: Jeff Head
Re: If we do not provide that help, then the UK, IMHO, in either case, would not be able to get past Venesuela on the way down to the Falklands.

Just wondering... what Bizarro World map you are using that makes the Brits have to go past Venezuela to get to the Falklands?

162 posted on 09/02/2007 4:49:05 PM PDT by Bender2 ("I've got a twisted sense of humor, and everything amuses me." RAH Beyond this Horizon)
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To: britemp

Typhoon? Is that a British aircraft.. All I recall of knowing a Typhoon to be is a Russian missile boat, God help us all if Chavez gets his hands on that...


163 posted on 09/02/2007 4:50:50 PM PDT by Schwaeky (The Republic--Shall be reorganized into the first American EMPIRE, for a safe and secure Society!)
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To: Bender2

If they use the same path/route they used before, staging at Ascension Island. Not bizarre at all. Of course they could use the Canal and go the other way, either the Suez or the Panama, but that adds a lot of distance and does not provide as good a staging.


164 posted on 09/02/2007 4:52:31 PM PDT by Jeff Head (Liberty is not Free. Never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: Jeff Head

Bush should have killed Chavez. He should kill him now...tonight. Why is it that the more outspoken international maniacs become, the more we fear eliminating them? We did this with Hitler, Arafat, Amadinejad, Al Sadr etc. Now again with Chavez. Our hesitation just makes them stronger. Won’t we ever learn? Kill him NOW Mr. Bush. What follows cannot possibly be worse...don’t believe Ms. Rice when she counsels otherwise.


165 posted on 09/02/2007 4:53:29 PM PDT by montag813
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To: montag813

What is in the Kool-Aid at Foggy Bottom that turns conservative icons into kook idiots?


166 posted on 09/02/2007 4:58:54 PM PDT by Schwaeky (The Republic--Shall be reorganized into the first American EMPIRE, for a safe and secure Society!)
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To: uncbob

There is a certain psychologiacl impact to hundreds of 500lb bombs turning whole sections of a city into an Urban Renewal Project.


167 posted on 09/02/2007 4:59:53 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four fried chickens and a coke)
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To: Schwaeky
The Typhoon is a very capable all weather fighter/bomber.


168 posted on 09/02/2007 5:01:08 PM PDT by Jeff Head (Liberty is not Free. Never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: Army Air Corps
here is a certain psychologiacl impact to hundreds of 500lb bombs turning whole sections of a city into an Urban Renewal Project.

That be a waste .The air fields would be the target
169 posted on 09/02/2007 5:07:19 PM PDT by uncbob (m first)
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To: Jeff Head
If he does nothing, he looks like the loudmouthed, braggard and bafoon he is. If he comes out to play, that force destroys all of his new toys and his capability to house, maintain, produce, and buy more.

I think a two-carrier task force would need about three days to ruin his entire oil infrastructure. Thenwe sail away and let him suck on that one for awhile.

170 posted on 09/02/2007 5:08:12 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Libs obviously don’t believe pro-lifers are terrorists, or they'd placate us by banning abortion.)
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To: Jeff Head
Sorry, you are just wrong.

As the article explains, they are mothballing a main fleet carrier. The expected future cuts will mothball an amphib ship as well. They plan to cancel 2 of the air defense destroyers previously planned. They are cutting the surface escorts by half a dozen additional ships. Nor is the readiness level they are starting from high - this instant, only 18 British surface ships are at ready status, with all the others still supposedly on strength, actually on 48 hours standby.

The British navy has already been gutted and it is about to be gutted by a factor of two, again. The likelihood that the pantywaists deliberately doing so, supposedly to save a quarter of 1 billion pounds per year out of a national government expenditure of 292 billion pounds, is lower than the chance Ahmadinejad will announce tomorrow that he has found Jesus.

Britain is a has-been country circling the drain. Facts may not be pleasant, but it is enough of a warning for us that we can't afford to sugarcoat it.

171 posted on 09/02/2007 5:12:34 PM PDT by JasonC
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To: UKrepublican
He can try if he wants. We’ll take both of them at once

If Argentina occupied the Falklands again, would Britain go to war this time or 'negotiate' them away?

172 posted on 09/02/2007 5:13:40 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: Niteflyr
Good idea...this idiot needs to be taught a lesson.....reminds me of the Moammar Khadafi days when he use to mouth off like this... this guy is stupid beyond belief....

And Khaddaffi's playing nice-nice these days...all because we showed strength in the 80s and in Iraq.

173 posted on 09/02/2007 5:14:57 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Libs obviously don’t believe pro-lifers are terrorists, or they'd placate us by banning abortion.)
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To: Jeff Head; Millee; carlr; Maximus of Texas; EX52D; StephenTX; wallcrawlr; Auntbee; blackie; ...
Re My 162 post: ...what Bizarro World map you are using that makes the Brits have to go past Venezuela to get to the Falklands?

Your 163 post: If they use the same path/route they used before, staging at Ascension Island. Not bizarre at all. Of course they could use the Canal and go the other way, either the Suez or the Panama, but that adds a lot of distance and does not provide as good a staging.

Guess the continents must have moved... since I took geography back in the 1950s...

But... as I recall:

Going from the UK to Ascension Island and on to the Falklands does not cross Venezuela...

What is that, a FedEx or whatever commercial, where the older guy tells the young guy to put a pin in China on the map? And the young guy starts at Greenland?

That's the way... I am feeling here!

174 posted on 09/02/2007 5:15:55 PM PDT by Bender2 ("I've got a twisted sense of humor, and everything amuses me." RAH Beyond this Horizon)
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To: JasonC
Sorry, dropped a clause in editing - the likelihood these people will send the entire navy to the south atlantic on a prestige mission, is ... (Ahmadinejad etc).
175 posted on 09/02/2007 5:15:55 PM PDT by JasonC
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To: goldstategop

We need to send a few ships down South to tempt Hugo into committing suicide. Britain should call his bluff and take Hugo out if he confronts them.


176 posted on 09/02/2007 5:16:03 PM PDT by peeps36 (OUTLAWED WORDS--INSURGENT,GLOBAL WARMING,UNDOCUMENTED WORKER,PALESTINIAN,TERMINATED PREGNANCY)
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To: Jeff Head

Why is the Falklands War and of this fool’s concern? So the Brits defeated an Argentine military dictatorship. Evidently the type of government Chavez sides with.


177 posted on 09/02/2007 5:16:31 PM PDT by popdonnelly (Our first responsibility is to keep the power of the Presidency out of the hands of the Clintons.)
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To: uncbob

I was peaking rhetorically about “the city”. A B-52 on the M-I targets would be a helluva message: “Even with a 50 year old aircraft design we can penetrate your airspace and blast whatever the hell we want.”


178 posted on 09/02/2007 5:17:21 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four fried chickens and a coke)
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To: Travis McGee

“Could the Brits even begin to attempt the same operation today?”

I don’t think the Brits have the naval assets to create a credible task force.


179 posted on 09/02/2007 5:18:35 PM PDT by popdonnelly (Our first responsibility is to keep the power of the Presidency out of the hands of the Clintons.)
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To: Army Air Corps
Corrections

A B-52 raid on...

...with a 50+ year old design...
180 posted on 09/02/2007 5:20:42 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four fried chickens and a coke)
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