Losing Latin America...
A good article by Niall Ferguson on losing Latin America.
Yet since 9/11 all that — more than a century of consistent U.S. foreign policy — has gone out the window. This is the really big story of 2006 — and yet no one is paying it any attention. And it's not as if the new populists in Latin America aren't looking for attention. Only last week, Chavez declared: "The imperialist, genocidal, fascist attitude of the U.S. president has no limits. I think Hitler would be like a suckling baby next to George W. Bush." Now if Chavez were a Muslim leader, this would be front-page news. But because he says it in Spanish, everyone yawns. Come on folks. It's just over 2,000 miles from Washington to Caracas. It's nearly 7,000 miles to Kabul. And Chavez is sitting on top of 6.5% of the world's proven oil reserves.
posted by GayandRight @ 9:37 AM
3 Comments:
Hmmm...imperialistic, facist, genocidal...did he forget anything else on his buzzword checklist? Hmm...nah, he did make the obligatory Hitler comparison...OH yeah! He forgot to call GWB a zionist warmongerer! I knew he'd left something out!
Uh... considering the amount of times they've been kicked in the teeth by the US, all this loud grandstanding and anti americanism is pretty understandable. The insults are pretty silly, cliche and backward, but this is the US reaping what they have sown.
Anonymous says "they've been kicked in the teeth by the US." Yeah, yeah, yeah .... and who exactly are "they" and when is the last time the US did the kicking? Countries in Latin America are routinely kicked in the teeth, but by their own feckless, corrupt and adolescent governments. Chavez is just kicking Venezuela in the teeth while following the Fidel bluster recipe to divert attention. There are examples of maturity occasionally - Chile, for example, Brasil most of the time. From my (ok, limited) vantage point in Santiago, I see no great threat to the US, just another silly phase in the banana republic cycle. The danger is not that governments might pick a fight with the US, but might pick fights among themselves. At any rate, the only country that really matters is Brasil, and the Brasileros have enough real money at stake to keep things calm (I pray to God).
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