We are the overworked ones. If this breaks as I think it will, we'll have to send the South Portland Campfire Girls. Who else is left?
Keep hearing rumors about CHICOM involvement with Castro and Chavez. I know they're in Peru, Bolivia, Panama, and Ecuador. So now wadda we do?
Welcome to war as it is practiced in the 21st century. War with China will be fought in the jungles of latin america, and by Washington PR firms. They will use narco-terrs and they will buy bipartisan control of congress. We will never see it coming, and we will not know it happened after it happened.
As they say, if the tree falls in the forest, and the press tells you it didn't happen, trust me, it didn't happen.
The Panamanian port contract with China is a perfect example of how it works. There was no publicity prior, the Panamanian congress locked itself away over a weekend to hammer out the law, and only announced it Monday morning once the law was law and the contracts signed. Clearly, the Chinese bought the president and key members of the leading parties.
They know their way around Washington as well.
A partial answer is to take a proactive interest in the makeup of Latin American governments and military institutions. We knew how to do this during the Cold War. This is Cold War 2. Between the Chinese and the Islamists, Latin America is the next battleground. We don't dare intervene openly, we don't want Venezuelan blood on our hands, whatever happens. But we must be prepared to back forces within Venezuela, and Panama, and so forth, who are prepared to fight for their own sovereignty and for republican government.
Our flat-footed defensive posture in Colombia needs to be left in the closet. We have to take the attitude we took in Central Asia; why focus on the triggermen leaving the leadership to sleep safe in their beds?