Belarus offers closer military ties with Venezuela

[naaman fletcher]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i6Mb0hTbtUv9N4hKHmbGdbmaN5MQD9EFVG5O0

CARACAS, Venezuela — Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko offered to help Venezuela strengthen its military, saying Tuesday that President Hugo Chavez's government should not have to worry about foreign threats.
Addressing lawmakers inside Venezuela's National Assembly, Lukashenko said Belarus hopes to "share the experience of creating an integrated defense system."
Chavez, a former paratroop commander who has built close ties with Lukashenko, has expressed interest in buying radar and anti-aircraft missiles from the former Soviet republic to bolster Venezuela's air defenses.

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As they say, birds of a feather...

[protocol rv]

1. They have good anti aircraft systems in Belarus

But Chavez would be better off teaching Venezuelan troops to build IEDs and carry out martyrdom attacks like they do in Iraq - strap a bomb around yourself and you become a very handy human guided weapon. Belarrusian air defenses aren't about to stop a US attack if the gringos get serious.

[bemildred]

2. I had no idea that Belarus was a center of military expertise.

You learn something every day.

[protocol rv]

3. They're not a center of military expertise

They do build some weapons. There's a difference between the two. Military expertise refers to being an expert at war, which also may include the construction of weapons of a certain type. During the Soviet Union days, Belarus was charged with building certain hardware - the military-industrial complex was distributed so it could survive a serious bombing campaign. However, a lot of what they make today is somewhat obsolete due to the emergence of robotic drones and cruise missiles - the US has leaped ahead in technology as a result of its engagement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The only sound way to stop US imperial troops is to use what is termed "4GW", or Fourth Generation Warfare. This uses what people know as IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), and other means, such as explosive charges carried by people (originally developed by the Tamil Tigers but much improved in the Middle East). Therefore spending money on 2 and 3GW is mostly a waste of money. A better investment would be to purchase long range sniper rifles, night vision devices and batteries, explosives, detonators, coded infrared triggers (originally developed by the Israelis, who taught Hezbollah to use them, believe it or not), and similar gadgetry. If you want to read about it, there's a good book called "The Sling and the Stone", it shows how warfare has evolved.

[bemildred]

4. Thank you for explaining that.

You sound like someone that would appreciate William S. Lind or Martin van Creveld. Mike Davis' "Buda's Wagon or a Brief History of the Car Bomb" is very illuminating too. But Belarus is still a Russian client state and I don't really feel that Venezuela and Belarus have much to offer each other besides friendship.

[protocol rv]

5. They can throw kisses at each other, I suppose

It's all a show. Belarus isn't known for its expertise in oil extraction, but here we are, they are given a field to work with. I guess they'll be learning how to do it. They don't have much money either, they live from Russian handouts and subsidies. Lukashenka is the last surviving communist dictator in Europe, so I suppose he has some rapport with Chavez. I happen to like the Russians, they've been the target of American imperialist design since the Soviet Union fell, but I draw the line with Lukashenka, he's too much of a goon to have my sympathy.