Posted on 03/02/2008 10:35:00 AM PST by MeanGreen2008
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is sending 10 battalions of troops to country's border with Colombia.
He's also ordered the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota closed and say all embassy personnel will be withdrawn from Colombia.
The announcements by Venezuela's leftist leader pushed relations with its neighbor to their tensest point of his 9-year presidency.
Chavez is also warning that Colombia could spark a war in South America, calling its U.S.-allied government "a terrorist state" and labeling President Alvaro Uribe (oo-REE'-bay) "a criminal."
“Who are these people claiming to be conservatives?”
Apparently they have never taken an economics class in there life. How sad.
Ah. Makes me think of the good old days.
Unfortunately, Ms. Nancy Pelosi doesn't like aid to Columbia because their president doesn't show enough support to the AFL-CIO. But Hugo Chavez, on the other hand, would be right up her alley.
It is going to snap off in his mouth, and he is going to have to swallow the damned thing.
There are times when I miss the Cold War. In that era, if you were an “evildoer”, and here I’ll use the loose definition of “someone willing to take from others by force”, the Soviet Union would support you, but only if you followed their direction. They didn’t like unpredictability any more than we (and perhaps less), and so we didn’t have tin-pot dictators acting unilaterally all that often. When dictators did upset the apple cart at times, their actions were always in the context of the larger arena. It was a rare day when neither we nor the Soviets had a hand in what transpired around the world.
Today the evildoers are still there, but Mother Russia isn’t there to maintain order (in their sick way). China would probably like to fill that role (and by some indications might be attempting this in small ways), but the arrangement today is probably more of a coalition than anything else. We have al-Qaeda-types clinking glasses with Iranian mullahs, who through their Prez clink glasses with El Hugo. I’m sure that Hugo and Kim Il-Sung have shared more than a few telephone conversations, and Beijing is certainly in the loop, at least to an extent. The evildoers have just as much ambition as they ever had, perhaps more now that Moscow isn’t there to keep them obedient.
With us embroiled in Iraq and Afghanistan, I’m wondering if their strategy is to strain the American war machine. How far can they stretch us before the horse’s back breaks? I’m not saying that this will happen, but I wonder if this is what they’re thinking. With a sliding economy they might be thinking that the timing is right.
Beijing won’t move on Taiwan before the Olympics, but those are only months away. Our trade with them enrichens the country, but it also makes them dependent on our patronage—until they start selling to everyone else. While we have their undivided attention, we would do well to bolster Taiwan and push missile defense tech.
I’m waiting for the next shoe to drop—maybe in the Korean Peninsula, or maybe somewhere we don’t expect. I think the evildoers have been talking to each other, and (to them) there are few conversations as worthy as “how can we get what we want without those Americans standing in our way?”
Cheers!
“Oil companies aren’t the bad guy any more than pharmaceutical companies are,...”
You should read “Outrage” by Dick Morris on how the pharmaceutical companies work the system.
From that IBD article:
Sadly, House Democratic leaders seem to be in thrall to both Big Labor and the dozens of left-leaning nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who see halting Colombia’s pact as a means of getting back at President Bush.
And, unlike congressional Democrats, the unions and NGOs haven’t been silent about opposing the Colombia pact. In fact, they’ve gotten louder as Democrats edge closer to supporting it.
AFL-CIO boss John Sweeney denounced the pact Tuesday by attacking President Bush, saying it “only reinforces how out of touch he is with economic reality and America’s working families.”
Once again the Congressional Communists are going to endanger America’s security!!! Note: Soros is in on this ploy as well.
They WANT to see Chavez increase his power and his military and his missiles and no doubt his NUCLEAR WARHEADS against the United States! BILLBOARDS NEEDED:
DEMOCRATS = TRAITORS = ENDANGER YOUR LIFE, AMERICAN CITIZEN!
You should try getting sick without their products. (no, I'm not wishing that on you, just making a point)
Exxon makes about .10 per gallon profit, State and Federal governments make .40-.50 per gallon. It’s simple math.
No need. To life's troubles, just click your heels together, close your eyes and keep repeating "It's Bush's Fault." If that doesn't work, make a movie about it.
Give me a break. If you actually believe the ‘oil companies’ control the price of crude oil then I have a bridge to sell you. Just as well as ‘big corn’ controls the price of corn, and big ethanol controls the price of ethanol, and etc etc.
Might wanna try and understand how commodities markets work first before making completely assinine statements.
“Oil companies aren’t the bad guy any more than pharmaceutical companies are”
I strongly disagree with that statement. Pharmaceutical companies are part of the pictur e in the inordinately high cost of health care in the US. The pharmaceutical companies sell their NAME BRANDED products in socialist countries and other third world countries at prices where they are not making a net profit on the products sold there. This is because the socialist countries dictate what can be charged for a drug. The pharma companies do so because they want to maintain their name brand recognition and dominance in the world market by being competetive with cheap generic products that are produced in places like India, China and Pakistan. It has nothing to do with wanting to protect the people from “bad drugs.” (Sorry, but the truth is that pharma companies are businesses and they are trying to make a profit. There is nothing at all wrong with that...that is how markets stay viable) The pharma companies also “give” tons of free medication to extremely impoverished areas in the world. In order to maintain a reasonable overall net profit, the prices that are charged in the US are higher. The reality is that the US consumers are paying for socialist countries being able to provide “free” health care and cheap drugs to their people. In order to prevent US consumers from accessing these cheaper drugs (and maintain the portion of their market which allows them to be profitable) the pharma are behind the push to keep US consumers from being able to purchase medications from outside of the US. It really irks me when liberals cry about how other countries have better health care systems and that the US should do better. And it even pisses me off more when I hear people from socialist countries talk down about the US health care. The socialist countries are paying for this health care, at least in part, with the dollars that the US consumers are paying for medications. What is the solution??? You tell me! I’m in the health care field and have no desire to work for peanuts!
10 battalions of women on their period???!?
Now I *am* scared.
Hold me.
SOMEbody's gotta protect the drug lords.
There will be bloodshed on the border. Might be a fight, too.
Stay safe
Idiots......
“Then there is the question of terrain. Is the border terrain actually suitable for tanks?”
1. Columbia has a more superior military
2. The roads from Caracas to the Columbian border are very limited. There is one, in particular, that is sufficient. Unfortunately for Venezuela, that road is up a mountain, so Columbia will have the high ground for this slaughter.
Poor Hugo. The world will be watching as he never gets the troops to the border, cementing his image as a blowhard.
It’s easier to shoot uphill, than down. Plunging fire also has more limited effect than raking fires.
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