Give Up Blog

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Liberals should avoid these guys

Now, we all thought it was hysterical when Hugo Chavez put on a Sombrero and made fun of Vincente Fox, and all those times he called Bush an asshole, we cheered because, hey, Bush is an asshole. It's nice to have leaders of other countries agree with this point. However, the problem with liberals blindly supporting crazies like this, as we've warned before, they are crazy (just look at George Galloway). You never know what they're going to do next, and then when they make asses of themselves, the fact you ever thought this guy was right about anything is a source of embarrassment. For example:

MINSK, Belarus (Reuters) -- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday he had forged a strategic alliance to stand up to U.S. imperialism with fellow maverick Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"Our countries must keep their hands at the ready on the sword," Chavez, in ex-Soviet Belarus as part of a world tour, said on a visit to a military academy.

"After a day of intensive work, we have created a strategic alliance between our countries," he said, speaking through an interpreter. "It is absolutely vital to protect our homeland, to guard against internal and external threats."

Sounds like the usual Chavez, throwing the crazy language around to rile up the Bush administration. However, this might be a bridge to far.

Lukashenko runs a Soviet-style command economy. Washington says he runs the last dictatorship in Europe. Belarus is subject to European Union and U.S. sanctions after Western observers accused him of rigging his own re-election in March.

It's just like with Galloway, once you identify someone as totally off the deep end, it's time to realize their support is not what you need for your cause. Yeah, he's outrageous, he's charismatic, and he hates the same people we do. Chavez is also freaking nuts, time to recognize that and say, if he wants to be crazy in Venezuala fine, let him, but don't pretend he's some kind of spokesman for the left. He's just a crazy opportunist who has figured out that attacking the Bush administration, an easy target, wins him popular opinion. He then uses that to support crazy stupid shit, like the government of Lukashenko in Belarus.

I've been feeling queasy about Chavez for a while. He is entertaining, and I admit, it was tempting to think he might be for real, but his world tour of Belarus, Iran, Qatar, Mali and Vietnam is yet another sign no one should hitch their ideology to this guy's wagon. He's just an opportunist demagogue and probably a crook. Just wait until he gets to Iran, I'm sure he'll say they're beacons of democracy or some bullshit.

5 Comments:

Anonymous said...

How do you feel about Putin getting in bed with him? Today Chavez signed a $1 billion deal with the Russians to buy fighter jets, helicopters, and the blueprints to build Kalashnikov rifle & ammunition plants in Venezuela.

Not only does this further free Chavez to screw with us (stop selling us oil) if he ever felt like it, but the new link with Russia might hamstring our options if we decided to manhandle him at some point. Not that we’re capable of manhandling lemonade away from a 6 year-old these days, but Russia standing in our way, even with rhetorical lip-service, might turn out to be a future pain in the ass.

-JE

4:26 PM, July 26, 2006

Rev. Dr. said...

To the extent that he's staying within his own country, we really shouldn't interfere. I think he is legitimately elected, even though there are always allegations of improprieties, no one challenges his opponents are disorganized and unable to get voters on their side.

So, he's a democratically-elected leader, if he wants Russian weapons to defend himself against us, fine. Maybe it will keep us from doing something stupid like sponsoring more South American coups. I'm not worried about Venezuala invading the US (or even the carribean). He's just a demagogue who finds mocking us makes him popular. I don't think he's so stupid to ever challenge us militarily, no matter what his armament. Nor do I see a reason why he would. He's all talk

5:29 PM, July 26, 2006

Anonymous said...

I'm not worried about Chavez using his new toys against us offensively. I think it's pretty likely though that there will come a future time when he thinks it's a good idea to cut us off from his oil. Then the US will do something stupid. Maybe we'll sponsor a coup, or maybe we'll just try to take him out (tip to the 700 Club), or maybe there will be some other retaliatory plan.

My concern is how close Chavez gets to Putin in the meantime. Russia might not feel like letting us react to a Venezuelan-induced oil shock however the hell we want. Maybe that's a good thing. In fact, I'm sure it's a good thing if it really curtails any South American adventures. But on the other hand, it might start some shit between the US and Russia. I’m not saying military action kind of shit, I mean push Russia closer to China kind of shit.

-JE

7:47 PM, July 26, 2006

Anonymous said...

I guess my question about how close Chavez and Putin are going to get has been answered: "Putin backs Venezuela bid for U.N. Security Council seat."

-JE

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas
/07/27/russia.venezuela.reut/index.html?section=cnn_latest

8:13 PM, July 27, 2006

Rev. Dr. said...

Woudn't it be funny if CHavez personally filled the seat?

I'm sure he'll send a mini-Chavez to rile up the place.

I'm not too worried about the oil thing though. Part of giving up is realizing Americans won't kick the oil habit until they are faced with a crisis. Venezuala kicking us off the stuff would be a nice kiddy-crisis to get everybody walking and riding bikes where possible.

10:30 AM, July 28, 2006