December 31, 2002
Kicking Butt in Venezuela
Marcela Sanchez in The Washington Post calls the Bush administration to task for once again leaning its strong arm on the country in favor of the anti-democratic business elite. The Bush administration "stumbles again," she says. She is too kind.Sanchez, to her credit, is discreet enough to attribute the adminstration's misdeeds to ineptitude, the old "stumbling giant" metaphor. But I don't think so.
In a formal setting like the Washington Post I guess it is a requirement to assume good faith on the part of the chief executive of the federal government and the mob he has around him. Unfortunately the history of these people -- which is clearly observable going back the Richard Nixon's administration -- does not lead one to rationally conclude any such thing.
The Reagan-Bush administration's atrocities in Central America were among the bloodiest and most barbarous acts of history. The behavior of the Bush administration every day since before they stole the presidency in 2000 makes it more than clear that these men know exactly what they want and they coldly and flagrantly go after it, crushing any resistance with brute force, never pausing to consider any moral or legal restraint.
The Bush administration's attempts to side with the oil barons trying to overthrow the democratically elected government of Venezuela -- which was committing the crime of forcing them to pay taxes for the oil they took out of the country -- was not stumbling ineptitude. The Bush administration wants to do in Venezuela what Nixon and Kissinger did in Chile September 11, 1972, overthrow the democratically elected socialist and replace him with a murderous military dictator.