Obama Declares Venezuela A Threat To U.s. National Security

[wineguy999]

You are very gullible.

I'll bring you some heavy duty aluminum foil from the States - guaranteed to keep the signals out better than the Argentine variety.

 

[Noesdeayer]

dennisr Love your commment Some country in the Americas has to tell it like it is The question is much too domestically delicate for almost all of the other democratic gov'ts in the región to take a position on.They can't afford to alienate even justifiably their socialist majorities by pointing out that the Maduro gov't is undermining what is still left of Venezuela's democracy.Read ex Uruguayan president Julio Maria Sanguinetti's recent article ," Un Estentoreo Silencio" - " A Roaring or Deafening Silence".Regarding their total silence on this matter.Only Colombia has rather timidly spoken out even though they have considerable trade interests with neighboring Venezuela.

 

[Matt84]

Of course I could be totally delusional in this, but there it is one possible theory. I do not think it is really all that crazy after having thought about it. The U.S. government is rarely seriously concerned with human rights. That's laughable. Obviously something else is going on here that hurts their interests.

National Interest is key. The US of course needs to first care about its own citizens' security, however after 400 years of different Trans-Continental Empires things eventually hit the fan and since 1945 the United States is obliged to care for the rest of the World's Human Rights beause it remained as the only country both capable and willing to defend an Anglo-Saxon Carta Magna, Declarations of Rights, and even Western in general (with the defeat and subsequent alliance of France) vision of Human Rights.

Perhaps my previous posts seemed sarcastic, but they aren't in the slightest.
Venezuela is a dangerous thorn in what would otherwise be a more or less peaceful and unified Hemisphere of the World (compared to the landmass the wrong side of the Atlantic). Perhaps it was under Brazil's secret aegis but it was definitely Venezuela which spearheaded the Reactionary ALBA accords to transform Mercosur into a block against FTAA.

It's as simple as "They really are not on our side, even after years of opportunities for reconciliation". The same could be said about Argentina if years was changed for seven decades.

Matias, or whatever his new nickname is, would counter that those opportunities for reconciliation were in fact instances of sadistic American interventionism. I would counter with the fact that the possibility of reconciliation has always existed, that has worked for other Latin American countries (at a human price sometimes much lower than the alternative), and that one thing being true doesn't negate the opposite being true as well: I suspect that's the ABC of diplomacy.

 

[Pensador]

If you have been watching the news lately you would have noticed things like....

http://tass.ru/en/russia/776808

Definitely should be regarded as a threat at this point. Especially when we see the rhetoric all of which is coming from these countries that have been hit hard because of their reliance on oil at over $100 barrel pricing. Camberiu I believe fits into the typical South American mentality which lacks the ability to weigh facts and do your own research. As he previously posted.

Here is a novel concept: If you have "threats" coming from every continent, every religion, every level of development and every ethnic group, maybe the problem is with you.

This posts reflects a level of shallow thinking that I have noticed frequently in the locals. If you look at the Anti US sentiment it is typically coming from sources of either countries that have been hard by the new oil prices or psychopaths that charade as religious fanatics.

The more I hear the fantasies about what the USA is doing the more I realize we are being lied about and used as an excuse for the failures of these profoundly inept socialist thinking simple minded people. And because they are simple minded they actually believe the stuff.

 

[sesamosinsal]

National Interest is key. The US of course needs to first care about its own citizens' security, however after 400 years of different Trans-Continental Empires things eventually hit the fan and since 1945 the United States is obliged to care for the rest of the World's Human Rights beause it remained as the only country both capable and willing to defend an Anglo-Saxon Carta Magna, Declarations of Rights, and even Western in general (with the defeat and subsequent alliance of France) vision of Human Rights.

I disagree. Appeals to human rights and democracy have made foreign interventions an easier sell to the American public, but U.S. foreign policy has never been driven by human rights. Frankly, it can't be. Look at the fun folks we have to deal with in the Middle East...

 

[Noesdeayer]

Matt and Pensador.Also great posts.I'm glad I started reading these threads again.Why don't you 2 come around to the Coffee Chats sometime? I have lived half of my life in Latin America. (I'm 72) and know the region well,You have taken the words right out of my mouth.

 

[Pensador]

Matt and Pensador.Also great posts.I'm glad I started reading these threads again.Why don't you 2 come around to the Coffee Chats sometime? I have lived half of my life in Latin America. (I'm 72) and know the region well,You have taken the words right out of my mouth.

I would love too but I moved to Uruguay with my Argentinian wife because I simply could not take it anymore. At first it was very disturbing watching the Argentinians grovel in poverty then I realized that were getting exactly what they deserved which led to finally being disgusted with the place.

NOTE - Not all Argentines fall into to the what they deserve category but the large majority do. Sadly the capable intelligent minority has to suffer the majority. Which is allot of what see in Venezuela.

 

[camberiu]

Venezuela is a failed State. Its President is desperate and not playing with a full deck, talks to a bird for advise. Good enough for me to be seen as a threat.

It only takes talking to birds to be labeled a threat.
Venezuela's annual military budget = US$ 4 billion.
United States annual military budget = US$ 544 billion.

Home of the brave indeed.

 

[scotttswan]

It only takes talking to birds to be labeled a threat.
Venezuela's annual military budget = US$ 4 billion.
United States annual military budget = US$ 544 billion.

Home of the brave indeed.

He labelled the country a threat so he could decree against various people in the regime. Nothing to do with their military. Everything to do with pressure on the regime and to get a more us friendly group in power.

 

[camberiu]

He labelled the country a threat so he could decree against various people in the regime. Nothing to do with their military. Everything to do with pressure on the regime and to get a more us friendly group in power.

Great, so he is gaming the system to bring a "regime change" to a country he has no business and no constitutional mandate to be meddling into.
And he wants to change the regime and bring someone into power who is more friendly to WHOM in the US exactly? Chevron? Exxon-Mobil? Conoco Phillips?
The Democrat's new slogan should be: "It is not imperialism when we do it."
Mr. Obama just justified and validated every left wing conspiracy theory denounced by radicals in the continent. Thanks Obama!

I have no love for Maduro whatsoever. But for once, let the Venezuelans figure their country out.

""I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1917. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
--Major General Smedley Butler, United States Marine Corps, 1933.