To give you an idea of how far to the Left the Obama Administration is, we have the amazing spectacle of this Presdent and his Secretary of State gnashing their teeth and making common cause with Venezuala's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Castro in their disapproval and anger over the removal of a Communist Latin American dictator!
Here's the story in a nutshell. Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, an Hugo chavez wanna-be, tried to unilaterally change the Honduran Constitution to allow him to become in effect president-for-life.To do so, he attempted to run through an illegal referendum.
The Honduran Supreme Court warned him that this was a violation of Honduras law,but Zelaya continued to try to muscle this through.
Since the referendum had been pronounced illegal by both the Supreme Court and the Electoral board the government refused to print the ballots an dno privat eprinter was willing to do so, so Zelaya actually had the ballots printed in Venezuela and flown in.
When the military (who would normally distribute ballots) refused to do so,
Zelaya fired General Vásquez, head of the armed forces and his supporters took the ballots from the warehouse where they were being held and attempted to distribute them anyway in defiance of the Supreme Court, Honduras' electoral law and the Constitution.
In response the Honduran Congress, including members of Zelaya's own party reinstated Vasquez, passed a law against holding referendums 180 days before or after general elections and established a commission, which found Zelaya in gross violation of his country's laws. TheHonduran Attorney General then requested Zelaya's impeachment. After the proceedings, The Honduran Congress and authorized the military to arrest him, remove him from office and put him on a plane bound for Costa Rica.
So this 'coup' was performed by the Supreme court, the Congress, the Attorney general and pretty much every branch of the Honduran government!
So what was Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's response to this? Do you even have to wonder?
The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.
It remains to be seen what Mr. Zelaya's next move will be. It's not surprising that chavistas throughout the region are claiming that he was victim of a military coup. They want to hide the fact that the military was acting on a court order to defend the rule of law and the constitution, and that the Congress asserted itself for that purpose, too.
Mrs. Clinton has piled on as well. Yesterday she accused Honduras of violating "the precepts of the Interamerican Democratic Charter" and said it "should be condemned by all." Fidel Castro did just that. Mr. Chávez pledged to overthrow the new government.
Obama called the so-called 'coup' illegal and "a terrible precedent."
Isn't that just lovely? North Korean nukes? No comment.Iran butchers its citizens in the streets and foments Islamist terrorism world wide? Hey, we still want to extend that outstretched hand and the Mullahs have the right to nukes too, no? Syria murders political opponents, gets caught with an illegal North Korean reactor and supports and finances Hezbollah? Let's just restore full diplomatic relations and not quibble about little things like that.
But Honduras legally ousting a leftist would be dictator? Now that's crossing the red line!
One might almost call Honduras the Israel of Latin America. At least as far as the Barry Zero and Hillary Clinton are concerned.
10 comments:
The best apporach for President Obama and his team would have been to say absolutely nothing here either in support or against any actions taken by the Hondurian Government. The United States with its horribly slumping economy, its worn down military, and massive national debt is simply no match for Hugo Chavez or Venezuela right now.
While any reasonably informed person certainly abhors communists/leftist dictators, there is nothing we can do right now. Venezuela is backed up by Russia and China and has a modern military purchased from those countries. It seems unlikely the worn down American military would be any match for Venezuela right now. Also, the economic situation and the massive national debt make it virtually impossible for America to maintain a conflict with Venezuela long enough to be victorious.
Its better not to engage in fights that one cannot win. This is why it would have been better to say absolutely nothing here. Obama may have just made matters worse by publically getting on the side of Mr. Chavez. Of course Mr. Chavez and his country are now the most powerful country on this side of the world. Mr. Obama and his team may simply recognize this reality. As such, they recognize if America wishes to surviva and maintain some type of soverignty over its affairs it is simply going to have to get on the good side of the most powerful leader of the most powerful nation on this side of the world.
This is simply the reality. We will just have to adjust to it. I don't see us being able to change this in the foreseeable future.
There may be a possibility. If we could get the democracies of Western Europe to stand with us in condeming the actions of Mr. Chavez and his stooges and perhaps if we could get the other countries of Central and South America to stand with us in condemming the actions of Mr. Chavez and his stooges we might be able to present a unified front to roll back the influence of these people. It is going to take a joint and sustained effort by many.
America is not in a position to take on Venezuela right now. At least, not in a conventional military conflict. Such a conflict would mean almost certain defeat for Anerica. Venezuelan and American leaders must certainly know this.
Mr. Obama was elected to do two primary things. 1.) Fix the "Bush eceonomy." 2.) Fix Aemrica's foreign image that was supposedly destroyed by President Bush.
If America were to take a stand opposed to the interests of Hugo Chavez, we would expect a chorus of critcisim from all of the major world leaders and the world media. Perhaps we should be willing to endure criticism for doing what is right but this does nothing to improve America's image abroad. To do so Mr. Obama would be undercutting one of his campaign promises of improving America's foreign image.
While I find Mr. Obama and his policies revolting, there is very little he could do in this situation to alter events. Whether anyone likes it or not Hugo Chavez and his stooges are the most powerful forces on this side of the world right now.
If necessary, I would expect Venezeula to send in its military to restore the power of their ally. The United States does not have the forces to counter this right now even if it wanted to. Unfortunately it does not seem to want to. This is truly a sad situation all the way around.
C'mon, Poster! Do you really think the US miitary is incaple of taking onHugo Chavez's thugs? Puh-leeze! You can't really believe that, Poster..
As for why Obama was elected it wasn't to fix the economy or America's foreign image. It was to take power for thepeople behind him.
i wonder if hussein is concerned that some of the members of the US congress and/or the US supreme court might use the honduran formula for an action north of the rio grande.
that would of course require them to grow a spine...........
nnnaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Freedom Fighter,
Thanks for the reply to my post. Yes the people behind him wanted power for themselves as do/did the people behind McCain. What I meant was the voters elected him to do the two things mentioned. At the time, they felt he would be the better person for the job of doing these things. Of late, some poll seem to suggest that some of the voters may be beginning to think they made a mistake.
In my first two posts, I may have over stated the power of Chavez and Venezuela a bit, however, he is backed up by Russia and China and the US military is worn thin from its continued operations in the "War on Terror." If necessary, I would expect Mr. Chavez to use his formidable military capabilities to restore his man to power in Honduras. While defeating Venezuela in a military conflict is not impossible, it would be EXTREMELY difficult.
A conflict with Venezuela would be especially problematic right now for America for a number of reasons. 1.)The world media would be expected to side with Russia's ally, Venezuela in this conflict. 2.)The struggling US economy and massive national debt make it problematic for America to sustain the conflict. 3.)Oil supplies from Venezuela would almost certainly be cut off and since many of our suppliers will be siding with Venezeula we can expect them to cut off supplies as well.
With regards to point three, had I been in a position of leadership the past eight years or so we would have been drilling for all of our own oil sources and would have built more refineries. As such, the ability of enemies and potential enemies to compromise our interests would be much less than it is now. But I have no power. These are the realities. We have to deal with them.
I've been reading your blog for several weeks and just want to say, "it's great!" Keep up the good work.
B Poster,
As FF said " Oh puh-leeze!"
You my fine feathered friend are a sniveling defeatist and a woefully misinformed one at that.
To take your risible ratiocinations (if I may use the term)completely out of order let me start by saying that of all the oil we import the Chavez portion represents roughly 9% of the total imported.That makes for about 5.5% of what we use.So, it counts but not as much as you'd think.I mean, we buy more oil from Mexico! Anyway, who's going to cut us off? Canada?(Twice as much)I doubt it.Besides,Zero hates oil! He hateses it!He wouldn't consider lack of supply a bad thing.
Second,military issues? Oh come on!The NYPD could probably take Venezuela, for sure if they allied themselves with oh, I don't know,LAPD and/or Miami/Dade.
( Okay, that last is hyperbole, but you get my point.)
Lastly, as low an opinion as I may have of Prez Zero, I don't think fear is his motivator here.We all know he loves the adulation of the press but it's not that he fears losing that.No,IMHO he really likes leftist dictators and wannabes.I believe he identifies with them.Maybe even envies them.After all,they're in a position to exercise their superior intellects to enact any changes they decide are for the good of the people!These Chavistas are all megalomaniacs and I think Barry is one,too.Either that or he's a plain ol' idjit.Neither option is a terribly reassuring.That's what disturbs me the most about this sorry excuse for statecraft.
Oh, and Louie?
No way would this congress move against their love object! But I'm sure you know that.
CA, I'll respond to your post as time permits. Suffice it to say I do NOT approve of the policies of Mr. Obama.
President Hussein showing his true colours.
B.Poster,
I believe we're basically in agreement so far as concerns our very own "Boy King".
I look forward to reading your further thoughts on Venezuela.I confess there's not much detail to my knowledge of the Chavez military machine.If you can educate me, so much the better.I have trouble seeing them as a credible threat though.
Keeping up with all the bad news is a full time job, isn't it?
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