Chavez: Prepare for war

I doubt, and hope, nothing really happens. There is already alot of political crap going on down there and the last thing they need is another war between two nations like columbia and venzuela.

Just another dumb turd idiot the U.S. may have to take out!

Haven't they been preparing for war with Colombia for like two years now???

Many South American countries have been organizing to be independent and free from the US and IMF for quite some time. Colombia needs to join that cause and stop selling out their resources to the corporatocracy. It's quite a movement and needs to be promoted and publicized. It looks like Honduras is the empire's latest victim of gov. takeover. Don't hear too much about that either do we?

Chavez is smart...im sure the CIA and Columbia are up to something...

"Si vis pacem, para bellum" - "If you want peace, prepare for war."

Imperial Mentality and Drug Wars (Noam Chomsky)

The justification offered for the new military bases in Colombia is the "war on drugs." The fact that the justification is even offered is remarkable. Suppose, for example, that Colombia, or China, or many others claimed the right to establish military bases in Mexico to implement their programs to eradicate tobacco in the U.S., by fumigation in North Carolina and Kentucky, interdiction by sea and air forces, and dispatch of inspectors to the U.S. to ensure it was eradicating this poison—which is, in fact, far more lethal even than alcohol, which in turn is far more lethal than cocaine or heroin, incomparably more than cannabis. The toll of tobacco use is truly fearsome, including "passive smokers" who are seriously affected though they do not use tobacco themselves. The death toll overwhelms the lethal effects of other dangerous substances.

The idea that outsiders should interfere with U.S. production and distribution of these murderous poisons is plainly unthinkable. Nevertheless, the U.S. justification for carrying out such policies in South America is accepted as plausible. The fact that it is even regarded as worthy of discussion is yet another illustration of the depth of the imperial mentality, and the abiding truth of the doctrine of Thucydides that the strong do as they wish and the weak suffer as they must—while the intellectual classes spin tales about the nobility of power. Leading themes of history, to the present day.

Despite the outlandish assumptions, let us agree to adopt the imperial mentality that reigns in the West—virtually unchallenged, in fact, not even noticed. Even after this extreme concession, it requires real effort to take the "war on drugs" pretext seriously. The war has been waged for close to 40 years and intensively for a decade in Colombia. There has been no notable impact on drug use or even street prices. The reasons are reasonably well understood. Studies by official and quasi-official governmental organizations provide good evidence that prevention and treatment are far more effective than forceful measures in reducing drug abuse: one major study finds prevention and treatment to have been 10 times as effective as drug interdiction and 23 times as effective as "supply-side" out-of-country operations, such as fumigation in Colombia, more accurately described as chemical warfare. The historical record supports these conclusions. There is ample evidence that changes in cultural attitudes and perceptions have been very effective in curtailing harmful practices. Nevertheless, despite what is known, policy is overwhelmingly directed to the least effective measures, with the support of the doctrinal institutions.

These and other facts leave us with only two credible hypotheses: either U.S. leaders have been systematically insane for the past 40 years; or the purpose of the drug war is quite different from what is proclaimed. We can exclude the possibility of collective insanity. To determine the real reasons we can follow the model of the legal system, which takes predictable outcome to be evidence of intent, particularly when practices persist over a long period and in the face of constant failure to approach the announced objectives. In this case, the predictable outcome is not obscure, both abroad and at home.

http://www.zmag.org/zmag/viewArticle/22733

this is a convenient mechanism to raise the price of oil.

hmm, top us export: nation-building?

Great...

South America really does not need to be caught in the throes of war. And if so the United States should not get involved. Are they serious? We can't afford to fight another war. People here are dying, education is lacking, and we still have to situate ourselves in relation to our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. With like 40%+ in Afghanistan being military contractors already, we don't have the resources to send more brothers and sisters down to fight a war between Columbia and Venezuela. Bring em back home, and for once can we just stay out of this one?

Colombia is going to get exactly what it deserves under the hands of Uribe. Chavez is completely right when he states that the recent pact between Colombia and the US is to ensure the continuity of the Babylon American Empire.

If war breaks out between Colombian and Venezuela, you can count on Chavez dragging Cuba, Peru, Bolivia, and possibly even Ecuador into the conflict. It would quickly escalate into a regional conflict. Currently Cuba has been slowly invading Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru sending hundreds of thousands of their citizens to these nations, presumably to get jobs and immigrate, but there is likely something more sinister at work.

Also remember that Chavez has the support of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

Chavez is a baffoon. He is even considered a joke amongst his neighboring countries. He is your typical 2-bit dictator. His people are starving and in need because he ruined his country's economy as well as Venezuela's Democracy.

I hope they all just kill each other so we can stop hearing about those dumbasses.

Let's hope (but i doubt it) that the U.S. will sit this one out, we got our own problems

Oh, jeez, here we go again.

Yes it's F'd up...also Colombia is spelled w/an O not a U.

Pffft. Bitch, please. Don't drag the U.S. into your stupid border brawls.

Maybe he'll get at the head of his Russian made tank column and drive into the Caribbean.