…when the only thing I have to read concerning Hugo Chavez is
his name on a tombstone.
Well before President Obama gave President Hugo Chavez a handshake at a 2009 summit, wiser heads at the State Department warned him against a "reset." Obama ignored them.
The rube-like naivete has now come to bite Obama as the craziness in Caracas spirals wildly in just the last few days. The Rumsfeld Maxim that "weakness is provocative" seems to be operative here, setting the stage for the astonishing string of lawless acts that now demand hard sanctions.
Now, what kind of lawless acts might those be? Here are two juicy ones from the list
• Naming a drug kingpin as head of military. Chavez appointed Henry Rangel Silva — identified by the U.S. Treasury as a "kingpin" — as his defense minister. That act not only flouts global efforts to stop organized crime, but effectively turns Venezuela into a narcostate and its army into a drug cartel.
• Plotting war against the U.S. A Venezuelan diplomat was kicked out of the U.S. last weekend for soliciting cyberattacks on U.S. military, intelligence and nuclear targets. Her acts were clumsy, but her malevolence extended straight to Chavez's palace, where she said she had ties.
I think Obama’s schmoozekrieg isn’t working out too well.
One JDAM would do the trick.
ReplyDeleteBut Obama lacks the will, if not the backbone. Chavez is a fellow commie, unlike bin Laden.
Relatives in Trinidad off the Venezuela coast, so I have followed the region's drug-crime problem. For example people we knew having gone ocean fishing are found murdered in their boat, because they saw 'too much' and as warning to others.
ReplyDeleteSo, Chavez appointing a drug kingpin as head of military - Wow, just wow.