Free Republic

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday he had forged a strategic alliance to stand up to U.S. imperialism with fellow maverick Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko. "Our countries must keep their hands at the ready on the sword," Chavez, in ex-Soviet Belarus as part of a world tour, said on a visit to a military academy. "After a day of intensive work, we have created a strategic alliance between our countries," he said, speaking through an interpreter. "It is absolutely vital to protect our homeland, to guard against internal and external threats." "The jaws of imperialism and hegemonism have both...

A few days ago the Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez declared himself a socialist in his customary negative style. Talking about the nature of his regime he said: "If not capitalism, then what?" as in "if not day, it must be night." His coming out of the political closet is another move in close imitation of Castro's own ideological striptease, which took place more than 40 years ago. Even more so than in the case of Castro, the main reason behind Chávez's embraced socialism is not really concern for the poor and the underprivileged. It is resentment of the rich and...

That is pretty much it for the United Nations -- all over, finished, bye-bye. Whatever happens now, whether there is a second resolution that does or does not get a Security Council majority, the game is up. The UN has been revealed to be not a talking shop, as its dismissive critics have always claimed, but a diplomatic souk in which bribery, vanity and manipulation are the currencies. Can anyone claim to have been edified by the pantomime of the past few days, with the foreign ministers of the great nations flying around Africa with metaphorical suitcases full of money...

That is pretty much it for the United Nations - all over, finished, bye-bye. Whatever happens now, whether there is a second resolution that does or does not get a Security Council majority, the game is up. The UN has been revealed to be not a talking shop, as its dismissive critics have always claimed, but a diplomatic souk in which bribery, vanity and manipulation are the currencies. Can anyone claim to have been edified by the pantomime of the past few days, with the foreign ministers of the great nations flying around Africa with metaphorical suitcases full of money...