Don’t laugh, it’s a headline in today’s Washington Post:
PRESENT AT THE CREATION
The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez
By Donald Rumsfeld
Sunday, December 2, 2007; Page B03
Notice the header…it’s a reference to Dean Acheson’s 1987 book, Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department. Acheson helped draft the 1947 National Security Act that created the CIA and other Cold War infrastructure. Rummy’s essay is disjointed and incoherent…like snowflakes in a vortex.
His solution to dealing with a ‘tyrant’ like Hugo Chavez? A free trade agreement with Colombia.
From the essay:
Well, at least we know what they are up to on the ‘official level’. I wonder what that is cover for.. Columbia.. George Bush.. hmmm…
Are there any other major drug producing regions left we don’t play puppetmaster to?
Are there any Oil Producers that we don’t aim to control the internal political life and thereby it’s resources?
We really do have Dr. Evil’s alienated son running our country.
Just one small way of saying “Fuck you, George”.
It’ll be interesting to see the results of today’s referendums.
Some of Chavez’ supporters even seem to think he’s gone a little overboard. It’d be a shame to see an outcome that could be spun as a victory for Bush.
Not really. Hopefully, Chavez loses his effort to run for another term and we can all stop threatening to stage a coup.
to stage a coup?
If you can read between the lines of Rumsfeld’s column….
I don’t understand why anyone is afraid of Hugo Chavez. The best way to “defeat” people like him and Castro is to realize that they have countries to run and so long as they maintain the support of their people they should keep running them.
We shouldn’t meddle in the domestic affairs of other nations until and unless they present a military threat to our citizens.
Afraid is a matter of degree. Business leaders are afraid they Chavez will help mobilize South America into anti-American business direction.
If the people elect Chavez, American business should be afraid of them (if they have to be afraid at all), not Chavez.
Term limits have nothing to do with it.
Jeez, I guess Rumsfeld must be tired of giving incoherent, rambling, disingenuous statements to himself in the mirror so now he’s got to put pen to paper to get a few backslaps at cocktail parties.
Is it any coincidence the two longest-running wars on the planet are both in countries with overt U.S. military and economic interference?
Should we really count the number of TRUE dictators, military generals who have been propped up by the U.S. government in Venezuela in the last 100 years?
The people of Colombia have suffered tremendously due to American foreign policy and this latest free trade agreement is to prop up Uribe and his coterie of businessmen who stay in power because they run their own illegal armies.
I will say this much, it is NO coincidence that Rumsfeld is mentioning Colombia as some kind of “solution” to Chavez. Venezuela’s crazy thick crude props up the U.S. “white” or legitimate economy and money laundering made possible via Colombia’s cocaine props up the American “black” or illegitimate economy.
Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina could fall into the ocean without too many tears by the military-industrial complex. But Colombia going leftist or progressive would knock them on their asses.
Just think what kind of motivation it must take for tens of thousands of Colombians to spend 40 plus years in the jungle, avoiding roving death squads and U.S. advanced helicopter gunships. In the end that always prevails and Rumsfeld and his ilk know it.
Pax
Hey Rumsfeld, here’s a question for you.
How did the U.S. get rid of tyrants like:
Juan Vicente Gomez (1908-14, 1922-29, 31-35), military general?
Eleazar Lopez Contreras? (1936-41), military general?
Isaias Medina Angarita (1941-45), military general?
Romulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello (1945-48) led coup d’etat?
Carlos Delgado Chalbaud (1948-50), led coup d’etat, military?
Wolfgang Larrazabal? (1958) led coup, rear admiral?
Oh gosh that’s right, they were all supported actively by the U.S. government and western companies, especially oil firms.
Why were there anti-government guerillas fighting in Venezuela up to the term of the last president of Venezuela before Chavez?
Why did the last president before Chavez suspend parts of the constitution without a squawk from the U.S. government?
On and on and on. Ignorance is bliss you homicidal maniac.
Pax