Posted on 03/02/2008 10:35:00 AM PST by MeanGreen2008
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is sending 10 battalions of troops to country's border with Colombia.
He's also ordered the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota closed and say all embassy personnel will be withdrawn from Colombia.
The announcements by Venezuela's leftist leader pushed relations with its neighbor to their tensest point of his 9-year presidency.
Chavez is also warning that Colombia could spark a war in South America, calling its U.S.-allied government "a terrorist state" and labeling President Alvaro Uribe (oo-REE'-bay) "a criminal."
Hugo got tired of waiting for GWB to attack. His people just weren’t buying it anymore so he found a different country to mess with.
It's a ploy to take VZ citizens off the huge economy problems that commie thug has caused.
Between the hostage-takings and Chavez’s ties to FARC, I guess push was going to come to shove.
Unless, of course Kofi Annan can be persuaded to leave Kenya and try to get these neighbors to the table. (/sarc)
chavez is gonna hang around as long as castro I bet. Another thorn in our side for decades.
Unless his military leaders.......
Chavez touches Colombia...he’s dead meat along w/Castro.
give the USMC a good xcuse to go in
500 tanks?
Very good analysis, Wag the Dog works everywhere indeed. The only side issue is that Chavez is a Megalomaniac and doesn’t know when to stop, which will add to matters.
If you recall a few years back a coup took hugo the nut out of power and then he got back in, why did we allow that to happen?
“That scumbag should be taken out like Noriega was taken out”
Please direct me to the pre-deployed US 10,000+ troops, airfield, mech infantry, deployment facilities, within a few *miles* of Chavez’s HQ. This is a totally different situation logistically, aside from the fact Chavez is not a career CIA payrollee.
Also, Noriega could have been ‘taken out’ without firing more than maybe a few shots if the US had simply agreed to take him into custody as we were asked to during the October ‘89 failed coup.
It’s not the headline on the website for CNN. I wonder why that is.
How anyone here possibly thinks that we can keep doing what we are doing and get involved with Iran, and get involved with Venezuela, and still be prepared to deal with China and/or Russia if needed, is living in a dreamworld. It's scary to think that so many people here are so willing to throw our already overworked and stretched thin military at this situation, and every other hotspot. How exactly can we do this without the military, and country, collapsing under the weight?
We’ve spent billions on equipment and training.
This guy starting a fight would be in US interests, as it might wake up the region’s leaders to the fact they have a hitler amongst them.
Just how has Castro has de-stabilizing fuel prices?
Grenada’s a pretty quiet place, but it is close by....
“Lets not get carried away. Moving tanks & troops to the border doesn’t mean they are ever going to cross the border. It’s probably just a lot of bluster.”
There were those who said that when Saddam did this to Kuwait.
“We’ve just got to remember that Chavez is a loudmouthed bully that likes making outlandish remarks.”
You may be right. It would be a mistake to create policy based on that thought, though.
Does Mexico have ten battalions? Could the leadership get them headed in one direction?
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