For no apparent reason, the leftist strongman is arming Venezuela to the teeth. He's also supporting local narcoterrorists and other Latin revolutionaries.
Chavez idolizes Cuba's Fidel Castro, is chummy with Libya's Moammar Khadafy and was a Saddam Hussein pal. He's made nasty remarks about President Bush and "suggestive" public comments about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
According to Gerver Torres, a former Venezuelan government minister, Chavez's "main motivation now is to do everything he possibly can to negatively affect the United States, Bush in particular . . . trying to bring together all the enemies of the United States."
His arms buying spree is odd:
Venezuela is stirring the security pot, too, sowing fear among its neighbors. From Russia, Chavez is buying 50 advanced MiG-29 fighters, 40 helicopter gunships and 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles. He's also bought arms from Spain and Brazil.
Really, I don't worry too much about this. Fighters? If he uses them we'll shoot them down. Same with the helicopters. And whatever big ticket item he buys from Spain and Brazil will go up in flames, too, if Chavez moves them beyond his borders. By buying this expensive pre-blown up stuff, Hugo plays our game. Did we not see how an entire military is dead meat if we put it in our sights while irregulars cause us more problems by reducing our relative advantages in training and equipment?
The rifles worry me since Chavez is just arming his own fedayeen. Or they can cause problems for neighbors if Chavez funnels them to bad guys running around the hills. If he took the money going for those MiGs and bought RPGs, rifles, night vision gear, and garage door openers, I'd actually be more worried.
Chavez is lucky we have more important and dangerous thugs to deal with.
[Excuse me while I turn off Chris Matthews. I vowed to never watch that hideous human again.]
One day we won't be so distracted. If he is still a pain, look out.
