VENEZUELA: RUMMY-DARTH VADER TURNS HIS LASER ON CHAVEZ

VENEZUELA: RUMMY-DARTH VADER TURNS HIS LASER ON CHAVEZ
http://hcvanalysis.wordpress.com/2007/12/01/venezuela-rummy-darth-vader-turns-his-laser-on-chavez/

Former Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld has emerged from the shadows to spew lies and hatred at President Chavez and the people’s Bolivarian revolution. You can only assume that the US meant to make a strong point with Rummy’s op-ed. As the poster Darth Vader-boy for war-mongering and torture, the US is no longer in the mode of “selling” the US public on the need for aggressive measures against Venezuela. Otherwise, it would have picked someone more socially-skilled than Rumsfeld. Using Rummy to deliver the message signals that the Government is in the “baring teeth, pounding chest” stage. President Chavez has ordered the military to protect all Venezuelan oil facilities and to be on high alert. Unfortunately. it all seems warranted.

A few gems, in case you can’t stomach reading the whole op-ed:


Meanwhile, a new generation of foes has mastered the tools of the information age — chat rooms, blogs, cellphones, social-networking Web sites — and exploits them to spread propaganda, even while the U.S. government remains poorly organized and equipped to counter with the truth in a timely manner. The nation needs a 21st-century “U.S. Agency for Global Communications” to inform, to educate and to compete in the struggle of ideas — and to keep its enemies from capitalizing on the pervasive myths that stoke anti-Americanism.

He spends a fair amount of time talking about the importance of reinvigorating institutions, promoting trade agreements, etc., all as a way of dealing with the bad boys on the block and then the last sentence of the last paragraph hits you like a laser (yes, I’m hung up on the Darth Vader stuff). “. . . mustering the same resolve that President Harry S. Truman and others demonstrated 60 years ago.” So, is he referring to the US dropping of bombs on Japan? If not, why would anyone leave it so vague that it could be interpreted as such?

Pundits tend to focus on individuals, not institutions. Personalities, after all, garner more headlines than do bureaucracies and agreements. But when institutions no longer serve our interests well — or, worse, hamper important efforts — we need to hear more about reform through public commentary, in Congress and on the campaign trail. The next president will face the issue of reforming domestic and international institutions — and will need to accelerate the efforts begun by President Bush. We can prevail by mustering the same resolve that President Harry S. Truman and others demonstrated 60 years ago.


If you wish to comment online, please go to the URL below. In addition, you can take a whack at Darth via letter to editor or op-ed as well.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

surely it's the reason the internal affairs of Venezuela are so important to him.

lol

You would wish he had a job to do.

a safe bet there with the m$$$$$$$$$m already going for the jugular.

And what did rummy get fired for again?

Today the people of Venezuela face a constitutional referendum, which, if passed, could obliterate the few remaining vestiges of Venezuelan democracy. The world is saying little and doing less as President Hugo Chávez dismantles Venezuela's constitution, silences its independent media and confiscates private property. Chávez's ambitions do not stop at Venezuela's borders, either. He has repeatedly threatened its neighbors. In late November, Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe, declared that Chávez's efforts to mediate hostage talks with Marxist terrorists from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, were not welcome. Chávez responded by freezing trade with Colombia....