Posted on 12/02/2002 12:52:35 AM PST by JohnHuang2
While Washington is preoccupied with weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a Fidel Castro protege taking power in Brazil Jan. 1 is threatening to restart the country's nuclear bomb-building program in a direct challenge to U.S. power in Latin America.
Brazil's new president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, swept to victory at the head of his hard-left Workers' Party by ripping the U.S. at every turn, by promising to expand the military in South America's largest country and by turning it into a nuclear power.
"Why is it that someone asks me to put down my weapons and only keep a slingshot while he keeps a cannon pointed at me?" da Silva asked in a speech to his generals in October. "Brazil will only be respected in the world when it turns into an economic, technological and military power."
Brazil had a nuclear-weapons program but abandoned it when Fernando Cardosa was elected president in 1994. That program, ironically, saw Brazil forge alliances with both China and Iraq.
Da Silva has said he will work toward closer relations with China, which has already demonstrated its interest in Latin America with extensive investments and even military presence in Panama.
Da Silva received the support of the Communist Party in Brazil and is personally close with Cuban dictator Castro and Hugo Chavez, the hard-left president of Venezuela. He has attended conferences with Latin American terrorists, such as the drug-smuggling FARC guerrillas of Colombia and the Tupac Amaru in Peru. He has known Castro for more than 25 years and has praised him as "a great hero."
Chavez, opponents say, has brought Venezuela to the verge of bankruptcy with massive spending on social programs. He has cracked down on demonstrators who say his presidency is turning into totalitarianism, while unemployment skyrockets and the national currency deteriorates. Some say the nation is on the verge of civil war, but Chavez refuses to submit to new elections.
Brazil already has a massive $250 billion debt and is depending on the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.
A group of Republican congressmen wrote a letter to President Bush warning of da Silva's nuclear threat, but, so far, the White House has not commented on Brazil's nuclear and military ambitions.
Since his election, da Silva has issued a "clarification" of his bellicose remarks, saying he does not intend to develop nuclear weapons. Nevertheless, some in Washington are beginning to raise concerns about the potential for an alliance of Brazil, Cuba and Venezuela.
"As the United States continues to fight its war on terrorism, this development in our own back yard could represent a devastating second front," said one military intelligence analyst.
Errrr, that wasn't a cannon, Lula. No wonder Brasilian women are so friendly to foreigners.
THE TIMES HERALD.com: "6 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARRESTED IN ALGONAC PARK" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "ALGONAC -- Uncovered in the darkness by a motion sensor porch light, seven Chinese nationals smuggled across the St. Clair River were arrested Thursday morning near the state park, U.S. Border Patrol officials said. The illegal immigrants told officials they paid between $60,000 and $65,000 each to smugglers who sneaked them via boat from Canada in the middle of the night.")(112302)
CHARISMA NEWS.com: PERSECUTION WATCH: "CHINA" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "In the weeks leading to the party congress, which began last Friday, the government has banned books, blocked Internet sites and clamped down on other activists. China allows only government-monitored churches, and has harassed and imprisoned Christians who worship outside the official system.") (111102)
WASHINGTON TIMES.com: "CHAVEZ TIED TO COLUMBIA REBELS" by Mike Ceaser (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Several of the officers, who recently declared themselves in disobedience and demanded Mr. Chavez's resignation, say the government also has opposed their efforts to combat guerrillas active on Venezuelan territory. Also, the Colombian newsmagazine Cambio reported recently that the Vene-zuelan military had sold and at times even given planeloads of arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which is classified as a terrorist group by the U.S. government." (112502)
ANANOVA.com: "POLICE FOIL 'REPUBLICAN BOMB ATTACK'" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The suspected attack is the latest in a series of terror strikes on Belfast this year. Both the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA have been blamed for car bomb bids in a bid to wreck the Northern Ireland peace process.") (112502)
Brazil already has a massive $250 billion debt and is depending on the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.
One thing I can tell you about nuclear weapons programs is that they are very expensive.
Chavez, opponents say, has brought Venezuela to the verge of bankruptcy with massive spending on social programs. He has cracked down on demonstrators who say his presidency is turning into totalitarianism, while unemployment skyrockets and the national currency deteriorates. Some say the nation is on the verge of civil war, but Chavez refuses to submit to new elections.
If Lula thinks he can have guns and butter let him renounce Brazil’s request for an IMF loan and show the world how a country can support a massive military build up and an equally massive social welfare system.
The Soviet Union tried to do this and ended up on the ash heap of history, a dismal failure. The Soviet Union collapsed under the weight of a huge military industrial complex and an equally huge social welfare system that included universal health care, universal housing, guaranteed employment and public housing for every body.
When the Soviet Union imploded, it left behind millions of its citizens with out a functional political infrastructure or economic system.
Millions of pensioners were left to their own devices for survival as inflation soared and pension pay outs plummeted.
If Lula can succeed were the likes of Lenin, Stalin and Gorbachev failed, he will go down in history as a great leader.
However I suspect he will fail and enter history as a failed leader or a tyrant who led his country away from the hope of prosperity that capitalism engenders and into the surety of universal poverty that is socialism.
Because we end the wars socialists, Nazies and communists starts and because we do not treat pointing weapons as a right, contrary to what you are saying, you scummy evil war mongering and confining threatening b@stard
Because if you don't we WILL eventually fire at you.
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