[Previously posted at Grok Your World.]
NY Times: "Robertson Suggests US Kill Venezuela's Leader," by Laurie Goodstein, August 24, 2005.
You've got to hand it to the corporate / Christian right: at the very moment Americans FINALLY realize the insane invasion of Iraq is irrevocably lost, they use the EXACT SAME KIND OF TWISTED THINKING that created the mess there to advocate yet a NEW fiasco - assassinating Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
These people NEVER stop ... even when their psychotic plans have visibly blown up in their faces - although perhaps they are HAPPY the US has created an Islamic Republic in Iraq - they just keep on going.
1) The most OBVIOUS point, made by Venezuela's Vice President and Ambassador to the US: a MAJOR supporter of George Bush has openly proposed a TERRORIST action by the country that ALLEGEDLY is conducting a "war on terrorism."
2) Related to that: the ABSOLUTELY CORRECT demand that Bush personally guarantee Chavez' safety when he attends the UN General Assembly session in New York in September - and if he doesn't, he should be brought before the International Criminal Court of Justice -
an institution Bush has refused to let the US join, perhaps for the precise reason that he wants his pals like Robertson and others to be able to make these sorts of threats - similar to those Bush directed towards Saddam before the invasion -- with impunity.
3) At the moment, there is no apparent jihadi threat emanating from Latin America, or, really, ANYWHERE in this hemisphere, with the possible exception of Brooklyn or Dearborn, Michigan - especially compared to the visible hazard in Europe revealed by the Madrid and London subway attacks.
But if they SHOULD go ahead with this moronic idea, they will do in Latin America JUST WHAT THEY DID IN IRAQ: create BOTH an active, operational jihadi movement AND massive legitimation for political Islam WHERE NONE EXISTED BEFORE !!!
4) Which will, unsurprisingly, convince many throughout Latin America and the rest of the world that BushCo plans for global destabilization will definitely NOT stop in the Middle East, but are intended for export to the US' southern neighbors as well -
coming, again, at precisely the moment Iraq is recognized for the completely counter-productive and unnecessary mess that it is.
5) And last but not least, you have to wonder if Robertson realized his comments about not needing a $200 billion war to get rid of some "objectionable" leader - using a much cheaper covert operation instead -
would raise questions about WHY THE BUSH REGIME DIDN'T USE THIS TACTIC AGAINST SADDAM HUSSEIN IN THE FIRST PLACE, if they found him so objectionable ???
Way to go, Pat - thanks for making an already precarious global situation even more so ...
Let's hope your pals in the corporate / Christian right don't take up your challenge, now that they're so bummed out John Roberts is gay ...
Not that there's anything wrong with that ... at least he's not a homophobe like the even more obviously gay Karl Rove.
