World Looks on With Concern, As Chavez And Castro Prepare for War

[chlamor]

My Comment: Highly Recommended Website: www.watchingamerica.com

Where the World's Views of America Come into Focus

World Looks On With Concern, As Chavez and Castro Prepare for War

Hugo Chavez appears to have adopted Fidel Castro's strategy of defense. The strategy, called "The War of the Entire Town," requires the entire population to join with the conventional military in resisting any invasion.

April 8, 2005
Original Article (Spanish)    

Last Tuesday, President Hugo Chavez formally announced the decree calling for the "conscription of military reservists" around the country, and the incorporation of civil society into activities to "maintain national peace."

Chavez said that he hoped for "one or two million organized, trained and suitably equipped reservists, ready to defend the sovereignty and greatness of this land."

"If someone comes here to try and snatch the mother country form us, they will bite the dust," said Chavez, during Sunday radio and television program, "Hello, Mr. President." Without giving details, it said that the reservists "will be ready to defend, in nearby towns, the sovereignty and greatness of this land."
Chavez, that it has repeatedly said over the past year that Washington plans to assassinate him, has sworn that the military and civilians will be prepared if America invades, and attempts to seize Venezuela's abundant oil fields. American officials have denied any plans for an invasion, but have criticized the purchase of Russian helicopters and 100,000 Kalishnikov rifles, which it says could fall into the hands of rebel groups.

The Venezuelan government has defended the weapons purchases, saying that they will remain under the control of the nation's military. Chavez accuses the U.S. of being behind an attempted coup d'etat in 2002, which Washington denies. Nevertheless, Chavez said this week that he does not want to be "an enemy" of the United States, his main petroleum buyer.

http://www.watchingamerica.com/eldiarioexterior000003.html

[Maple]

1. 'Prepare for war'??

Funniest headline I've seen all week. :D

[Cha]

8. Really! I thought they were gonna

go at it!

Chavez sounds brilliant to me..am I missing something?

And that pesky Spain sold them arms and rummy was bummed!

[katsy]

2. And what is wrong with defending their homeland? eom

:shrug:

[not systems]

12. Their homeland is on our oil.

:shrug:

[Robbien]

3. A defensive war. They know someone wants to attack them

and unlike Iraq who gave up their weapons, Cuba and Venezuela are keeping theirs close.

[knowbody0]

4. he is just plain kool

[4dsc]

5. Global resource wars: The Rosetta Stone

http://www.energybulletin.net/4894.html

A slab of black basalt which now sits in the British Museum contains a decree honoring the Egyptian king, Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The decree was written in three languages: Greek, hieroglyphics, and demotic (a simplified form of hieroglyphics). The black slab is known as the Rosetta Stone and became the key to understanding hieroglyphics because on this stone the ancient pictographs were seen for the first time side-by-side with other better understood languages.

Some 200 years later we find ourselves back in the part of the world where the Rosetta Stone was discovered, trying to figure out another conundrum. What is the nature of the connection between an ill-planned war in Iraq; the steadily increasing pressure on dissent in the United States; the ongoing estrangement between the United States and its traditional allies; the increasing strains with the country's Canadian neighbor; and the forbearance shown to China as opposed to the increasing distrust of Russia? Is there a compelling overriding theme that connects them all? By lining them up side-by-side the theme becomes clear if you know on what basis to draw in the connections. The one common thread is a global scramble for the remaining energy resources in the world, especially oil and natural gas. Let's take a look at that thread.

[4dsc]

6. the third world war started

http://www.energybulletin.net/3961.html

Pay attention here...

The third world war is about oil and trade. Three major blocks have emerged. The first is the Americans with some allies like Australia, Japan and so on. The second is BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). The third is the European Union. The triangle of international politics is complex and a diplomatic challenge for all head of states. For example India is the process of a tug of war between the Bush led Americans and the Putin led BRIC. China is definitely in BRIC quarter. Russia is leading the BRIC with its big oil reserve. Brazil is in similar situation as India but they are leaning towards BRIC because of Chinese imports of Brazilian grain and other agricultural products. India is scared to antagonize the Americans. They love earning American dollars and Euros by exporting English speaking educated bodies or services to the West. But the heart of India is with the BRIC. Self respect and independence is very important in India. If you leave out the Indian oligarchs in the field of call centers, Information Technologies who make money by exploiting young educated people (a modern version of high tech slave trading), the rest of the country is pro-BRIC. India is also concerned about the ‘Pakistani nuisance effect” – Pakistan is not really a threat in any sense but can be a perpetual nuisance to deal with. For earning easy money based on H1 temporary work visas in America and so called providing outsourcing services and keeping Pakistani ambition in check, India just cannot antagonize the Americans. Also these Indian oligarchs fund the election of all the political parties. The Indian oligarchs control all the political parties. And as long as Americans keep providing outsourcing money to these oligarchs, India will stay neutral.

[Skip Intro]

14. I think this is about more than commerce

I think a global confrontation of left and right.

A last chance, maybe, of the people of this world to not be opressed, manipulated, used - but to be in control of their world - to demand it.

Will freedom's hero come from somewhere other than the US?

[Tinoire]

15. Where have you been hiding?!!! You cannot say this loud enough

Who are you and why do you so rarely post? Thank you!

Pay attention here You cannot say this loud enough.

And sadly it didn't start with Bush II's recent excursion into Iraq.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. Three blocs:

Oceania
Eurasia
Eastasia

[alittlelark]

7. Chavez is brighter, and has more real-world savvy

than ANY member of this admin. He sees the writing (graffiti) on the wall, and is painting it over with truth - oh, yeah, and weapons.

The US will not attack a well-armed country.

[Leilani]

9. Oh, Boo!

He's doing exactly what Bush did...scaring the populace in order to unite them behind him. Using nationalism & a bogeyman for his own political purposes.

You all saw it when Bush did it. Why aren't you seeing it with Chavez?

Right now, we're just a little preoccupied with Iraq & Afghanistan. We don't have the troops to invade & go to war with anybody else, even if Bush wanted to.

[shanti]

13. horse pucky

chavez KNOWS what's up and he's being prepared. that is a far cry from what the chimp has done, not even close. read the handwriting on the wall!

[Skip Intro]

16. crying wolf is ok when there really is a wolf

If I were Chavez, I'd prepare to defend my nation from bush too

[Silverhair]

10. Castro has been preparing for war ever since the Bay of Pigs.

Ever couple of years he make some pronouncement about the impending Yankee invasion and makes a bunch of speeches. And nothing happens. The US plan is to wait him out. He is no longer an outpost of the Soviet Empire, so we really don't give a damn about him. Now he is just another third world dictator. Once he dies, it is likely that the next El Jeffe will move toward freedom. He has to, or their economy will go further downhill.

[Mika]

19. Great plan.

NOT!

:eyes:

[Fridays Child]

11. When will the rest of the world learn that WE are the only ones allowed...

...to defend ourselves. We may do so at home, we may do so abroad, and we may do so pre-emptively. We do not, however, grant other sovereign nations the same permission. The sooner they all understand that, the better we will all get along. :sarcasm:

[chlamor]

18. The Cuba Diet: What Will You be Eating When the Revolution Comes?

The Cuba Diet: What will you be eating when the revolution comes?

by Bill McKibben

The American model of agriculture is pretty much what people mean when they talk about the Green Revolution: high-yielding crop varieties, planted in large monocultures, bathed in the nurturing flow of petrochemicals, often supported by government subsidy, designed to offer low-priced food in sufficient quantity to feed billions. Despite its friendly moniker, many environmentalists and development activists around the planet have grown to despair about everything the Green Revolution stands for. Like Pretty, they propose a lowercase greener counterrevolution: endlessly diverse, employing the insights of ecology instead of the brute force of chemistry, designed to feed people but also keep them on the land. And they have some allies even in the rich countries - that's who fills the stalls at the farmers' markets blooming across North America. ....

<snip>

Not everyone is happy with the set of possibilities that the multinational corporate world provides. People are beginning to feel around for other choices. The world isn't going to look like Cuba - Cuba won't look like Cuba once Cubans have some say in the matter. But it may not necessarily look like Nebraska either. "The choices are about values", Pretty said. Which is true, at least for us, at least for the moment. And when the choices are about values, we generally pick the easiest and cheapest way, the one that requires thinking the least. Inertia is our value above all others. Inertia was the one option the Cubans didn't have; they needed that meal a day back, and given that Castro was unwilling to let loose the reins, they had a limited number of choices about how to get it.

"In some ways the special period was a gift to us", said Funes, the forage expert, the guy who lost twenty pounds, the guy who went from thinking about White Udder to thinking about oxen teams. "It made it easier because we had no choice. Or we did, but the choice was will we cry or will we work. There was a strong desire to lie down and cry, but we decided to do things instead."

<snip>


In so doing they have created what may be the world's largest working model of a semi-sustainable agriculture, one that doesn't rely nearly as heavily as the rest of the world does on oil, on chemicals, on shipping vast quantities of food back and forth. They import some of their food from abroad - a certain amount of rice from Vietnam, even some apples and beef and such from the United States. But mostly they grow their own, and with less ecological disruption than in most places. In recent years organic farmers have visited the island in increasing numbers and celebrated its accomplishment. ....

http://www.energybulletin.net/5225.html

[Dirk39]

20. From "Rogue States" to "Unstable Nations"...

America's New National Security Doctrine

">Unstable Nations< are the Target for Military Intervention

The Pentagon document was made public on the 18 of March. The Wall Street Journal provided a summary, a week prior to the release of the declassified Pentagon document (See Classified Pentagon Document New Undeclared Arms Race: America's Agenda for Global Military Domination by Michel Chossudovsky, http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO503A.html )

Barely a week following the release of the declassified version of the Pentagon document , the National Intelligence Council of the State Department confirmed that "U.S. intelligence experts are preparing a list of 25 countries deemed unstable and, thus, candidates for intervention". There was however no formal confirmation that this NIC initiative was related to the new Pentagon doctrine, released on mid-March."

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO504A.html

Just in case, anyone thinks Chavez is paranoid...


Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[chlamor]

21. Che and the Snake

Hello Dirk. Lived in Bamberg for a short time years back. Had a blast and enjoyed travels in Germany greatly. The world knows but sadly back here in Never-Never land we have many smokescreens.

[theboss]

22. This is straight out of "Consolidating Power 101"

There is no better way to get the population behind you than by mobilizing for war. The fact that nobody is about to invade is irrelevant.

[Terran1212]

23. I am against the draft and militarization but...

It's time the people of this world stop bending over and taking it in the backside. They need to resist like the peasants of Indochina and stop allowing the US to simply waltz all over their faces.

[solinvictus]

24. Chavez's recent shopping list...

He's purchased 150K AK-47 carbines, helicopters, and advanced attack planes from Russia, corvettes, frigates, PT boats, and transport planes from Spain, and he has some defense technology coming from China. With all the rhetoric from Bushco, I can't say I blame him.