World's Most Dangerous Leaders

Reader's Digest ^ | July 2007 | Dale Van Atta

[blitzgig]

Any roll call of the world's despots is depressingly long. But only a handful of leaders threaten the security of countries well beyond their borders. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, is the latest ruler to emerge from this pack. Rabidly anti-American, Chávez is intent on stirring up trouble -- and he's getting the help of some menacing thugs he counts as friends.

Last September, Americans got a surreal introduction to Hugo Chávez. In an address before the UN General Assembly in New York, Venezuela's president launched into a tirade against the previous day's speaker, George W. Bush. "Yesterday," he intoned, "the devil came here. Right here." He made the sign of the cross, then added, "And it smells of sulfur still today." Many of the diplomats laughed and applauded. Chávez went on to charge that the United States "doesn't want peace" and denounced its "system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war."

His rant made headlines, but it was hardly news to those who have followed Chávez through the years. In other venues, he's referred to Bush as a drunkard and a terrorist, and not long ago derided Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as an illiterate and sexually frustrated woman.

While Chávez's rhetoric is often odious and his behavior clownish, we can't afford to ignore him. Secretary Rice says Chávez is "one of the most dangerous men in the world." His goals are a direct challenge to the United States and its allies: to forge alliances with America's foes, including the world's most unsavory regimes and terrorist groups; to undermine U.S influence by leading an anti-American coalition of countries; to spread oil wealth throughout the region to buy support and promote leftist governments; and to build an outsize military, supposedly to resist an American invasion.

[blitzgig]

Essay on the four most threatening anti-American dictators today--Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bashar Assad, and Kim Jong Il.

[Jack Hammer]

There have always been international nutjobs; thank goodness for the United States Marines!

[Tribune7]

Kennedy Clan Profiting from Hugo Chavez's Oil?

[Rockitz]

I’m surprised Bush is not on the list. I guess the editors of Reader’s Digest have not yet fallen in with the rest of the MSM.

[johnny7]

...Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Stands alone...

[TruthWillWin]

Sadly most on the far left would have Bush on the list.

[taillightchaser]

They left out the hildabeast.

[AirBorn]

Add to your list of "Dangerous Leaders & Their attributes " those "Leaders" who use the " NEW TONE " Effect of "Ruling"!-

When a Leader, no matter WHAT "Good Intentions" they might have, Still Rules with Their OWN personal Agenda Despite what those who VOTED THEM INTO OFFICE say and protest , write, call or do, They are DANGEROUS because they are NOT adhering to what They originally Swore to do; which is lead under the controls and standings of our CONSTITUTION and the Rules, Laws and purposes of WHY & HOW This nation was founded on!

The THREE BOLLION DOLLARSBRIBE- That was suppose to go to the BOARDER ENFORCEMENT "IF" Bush's Illegal Alien Work Program was voted in-looks like NOW It's going to Up-Grade and Build NEW ROADS! so the MEXICAN COUNTRY's Private & National Trucking firms (With Nafta) can " Roll better, faster and more profitable, across the Highways of OUR U.S. Roads!

[ran20]

We should have taken Chavez out when he seized the oilfields of our companies. It really is a sign of weakness in front of the world when a bully takes something from us. And we try to act like we didn’t notice, and are too timid to do anything back.

[starfish923]

- In my opinion Kim Jong Il is just plain nuts. He stands alone there. There is no dealing with maniacs like him. Let the Chinese be useful to SOMEone other than themselves, for ONCE, and deal with the maniac. They have SO much more experience at dealing with insane dictators.

- Bashar Assad isn't very different from his father. Therefore, he is a known entity. When I visited Syria YEARS ago, it was a police state. We tourists WERE safe and welcome by the Syrians because we were just people, not the American government.
I remember the airport security. If WE had been as careful about airport security as they were then (and now) 911 would not have happened.

Assad is also an Arab and thus, normal, every-day logic doesn't apply. EXTREMELY important to remember that FACT.
We Americans keep trying to apply standard logic in dealing with the Arabs. Thus we continually fail, throw up our hands and cry "foul."
We've already been dealing with Arabs since 1932 with the formation of ARAMCO, the Arabian American Oil Company. It's a non-governmental company from the American (and Dutch) side that has been, is, and will continual to be PHENOMINALLY successful. We should take a lesson from those three American oil companies to learn how to understand and deal with Arabs.
Lol, we SHOULD take a lesson, but we WON'T. We'll continue with bashing Bashar and excoriating all Arabs because we just don't understand them. Oh well. We are supposed to "live and learn," but NOT, sad to say, about the Arabs. We "live and DON'T learn."

- Ahmadinejad is NOT an Arab. He's an Iranian....TOTALLY different, though NOT to FReepers and other Americans. That is part of American thinking...that they are all the same over there. They are not.
The Iranians, Persians, will go their own way, almost always the most arrogant, self-serving, insular and Persian way. Ahmadinejad and his people won't be dealt with by us. We can't win; no one can. They will do exactly what they want to do, how they want to do it and the hell with the rest of the world.
If we deal with him and other Iranians on THAT level, then we can deal.

- Chavez is a pimp, as in the Don Corleone type. He's just a pimp who is in charge this year. Some other muscle-head South American sewer rat will emerge in another few years.
There's no dealing with vicious, violent, enriched muscle-headed pimps beyond shooting them dead.
Another will take his place and so the cycle continues in South America. Sad place. Reminds me of southeast Asia but not so filthy and disease ridden.

There you have it...my little take on the dictators.
Thank you for reading.

[starfish923]

There have always been international nutjobs; thank goodness for the United States Marines!

True enough.

Semper fi.

[rlmorel]

"...He's an Iranian....TOTALLY different, though NOT to FReepers and other Americans..."

That is a pretty broad statement you make, and I disagree with it. It should be "to SOME FReepers and MANY Americans..."

There seems to me to be a reasonable level of understanding of Iranians as Persians and not Arabs on FR...

That notwithstanding, I submit that there is more in common from an emotional standpoint between Persians and Arabs than there is difference, at least governmentally speaking.

Arab and Iranian governements are misogynistic, sexually repressive, poltically repressive adherents to Islam who view America as the root of all evil who won't shed a tear if bad things happen to us, and will even assist if they think they can get away with it without being caught.

[starfish923]

That is a pretty broad statement you make, and I disagree with it. It should be "to SOME FReepers and MANY Americans..." There seems to me to be a reasonable level of understanding of Iranians as Persians and not Arabs on FR...
Yes it is. Perhaps you are right. I stand corrected.
Though, sometimes, on the subject of Arabs many ... well, never mind.

That notwithstanding, I submit that there is more in common from an emotional standpoint between Persians and Arabs than there is difference, at least governmentally speaking.
True, though I'm glad you added "governmentally speaking." On the cultural and human level, the Persians have SUCH disdain for Arabs and they aren't subtle about it.
Their respective oil industries, I think, make them have more in common than ever before in their respective histories.

Arab and Iranian governements are misogynistic, sexually repressive, poltically repressive adherents to Islam who view America as the root of all evil who won't shed a tear if bad things happen to us, and will even assist if they think they can get away with it without being caught.
Lol.
True and THAT statement sounds EXACTLY like all of the Asian (Include India here.), African and Hispanic governments, to a TEE, though one must substitute communism, Buddhism, Hinduism, animism and Christianity, respectively, for Islam. Africa, of course, has the mixture of Islam, Christianity and animism, so they get all three.
The Saudis are different (in my opinion) in that we Americans (millions of them over the past six decades) have been living and working there since 1932. It's worked well so far and will continue to work in spite of the antipathy Americans have for Arabs and Muslims.
I know THAT by personal experience. I lived and worked there for five l-o-n-g years. Made a TON of money. Thank you, o Fat Fahad.

[EGPWS]

But only a handful of leaders threaten the security of countries well beyond their borders. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, is the latest ruler to emerge from this pack. Rabidly anti-American, Chávez is intent on stirring up trouble -- and he's getting the help of some menacing thugs he counts as friends.

Open your other hand palm up if Hitlery and Bill happen to reside in the Whit house again.

[EGPWS]

“White” that is...

[maine-iac7]

Our oil from Venezuela = about 500,000 barrels a day

Estimated production from Anwar would be (low ball) about 900,000 a day =

That would be from one domestic source we want to establish.

Then there’s the
http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/oilgas/publications/naturalgas_general/rockymtn_final.pdf

” The Rocky Mountain States have the potential
to supply the Nation with a vast, untapped
resource of natural gas.
...renewed concerns about
energy security illuminate the importance of the Rocky Mountain States as a
major producing region.

“Estimates of technically ... recoverable gas currently range from 1,100 to 1,400 Tcf.”

and just what is a “Tcf”?

Well: “Natural gas is generally priced and sold in units of a
thousand cubic feet (Mcf, using the Roman numeral
for one thousand). Units of a trillion cubic feet (Tcf)
are often used to measure large quantities, as in
resources or reserves in the ground, or annual
national energy consumption. A Tcf is one billion
Mcf and is enough natural gas to:
• Heat 15 million homes for one year.
• Generate 100 billion kilowatt-hours
of electricity.
• Fuel 12 million natural gas-fired vehicles for
one year.”

So one Tcf =’s 1 billion Mcf’s . That’s a lot of energy.

BUT, the dimWits will move heaven and earth to keep us from using Anwar OR the vast natural gas resources in the Rockies = which would take us, like in the U.S., off being dependent to foreign despots. WHY? (one might start with the fact that dimRAts like GoreBore, as his father before him, has/is making a comfortable living off OXY oil, out of South America. And we’ve had evidence that many other Foggy Bottom bureauRats have under the table ties to midEast oil $ ....
And remember, during the last 2 frenetic weeks of Clintooons Reign, one of his dictator acts was to rush out to Utah, unannounced even to the governor of Utah, set up a card table, flanked by his media lackeys, and declared a vast chunk of desert he knew contains enormous reserves of natural gas, as off limits to use...

WHY?

Just maybe, aside from personal ties to foreign oil money, they would also lose a lot of power. If we weren’t dependent on foreign oil = that power grip would turn to jelly.

Time to out the domestic tyrants for who and what they are.
Start peppering those running to rule this land with the WHYS of their not wanting us - the U.S. - to get off dependence to foreign despots like
Chavez for energy supplies.

All we hear is that we are dependent on Venezuela for a percentage of our oil = but, hello, Chavez is dependent on US for 50% of his oil income. So let’s drill in Anwar and the Rockies and cut him off at the knees.

Now is time to get these stats out to the sheeple, while the clowns are running for office and the media is covering their every utterance. Pepper them with these questions and stats.

It’s up to We the People -

You know the drill: “We get the kind of government we deserve.”

If we sit back, as the “Silent Majority” is want to do, and wait for our “representatives” in Foggy Bottom to do the right thing without being forced to by us - we are equally to blame...

[353FMG]

Clinton, Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy and other dims should be on that list, also. That they are American citizens does not distract from the fact that they could be instrumental in the demise of this country if they are ever placed in a position of leadership. The enemy within that speaks softly is more dangerous than the one who loudly knocks on the door.

[lesser_satan]

He missed the most dangerous one of all: Vladamir Putin, who, unlike all the others mentioned, has a vast nuclear arsenal at his disposal.

[Popman]

I can't believe you didn't post this great picture with the article

[RightWingConspirator]

I have a feeling that some patriotic Venezuelans will force .50 cal term limits on Chavez one of these days.