Osama Bin Chavez
From OpinionJournal's Political Diary
07.09.05 | They Didn't Listen When Osama Declared War Either When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad travels to the Western Hemisphere for the U.N. general assembly later this month, he won't fly directly to New York. Instead he will first call on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, then on Fidel Castro in Havana.
Television evangelist Pat Robertson's suggestion that Chavez needs to be taken out met with great indignation from the Venezuelan strongman's American admirers. Jesse Jackson, ever the reconciler, rushed to Caracas to patch things up. But while Mr. Chavez undoubtedly enjoyed the publicity afforded him by the aging preacher, the notion that the hemisphere would be better off without him as president is hardly far fetched. By his own admission, Fidel's Venezuelan Mini-Me is an enemy of the U.S., and more Americans would benefit from witnessing the day-to-day rhetoric he pours forth aimed at ginning up hatred against his northern neighbor. Instead we hear about his magnanimous offers of aid to Katrina victims.
Too bad his August 13 speech at a Caracas auditorium for the 16th World Youth and Students festival in Venezuela wasn't broadcast in the U.S. In it, he warned of "U.S. imperialism" which is "filled with terror."
"There has never been an empire more violent than the present North American empire. There has never been an empire crueler. There has never been an empire more cynical. There has never been an empire more hypocritical. There has never been an empire more savage. There has never been an empire more dangerous," Venezuela's head of state declared to the roaring cheers of thousands of youngsters. The U.S., he said, is "Mr. Danger," stressing that this does not refer to a person but to an "imperialistic, hegemonic system."
Mr. Chavez has been fomenting revolution against democracies in Latin America for at least a couple of years. Now he's bringing the Iranian president to Caracas and quite openly pronouncing the U.S. an enemy. Maybe all of this is just a tad bit more important than Mr. Robertson's musings on U.S. foreign policy in Latin America.
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