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Bloviating Zeppelin: More Of "We Are At A Crossroads"

Bloviating Zeppelin

(in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

More Of "We Are At A Crossroads"


FIRST ISSUE:
We already know that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is a good friend of Fidel Castro -- witness the photograph.
There should be no confusion now as to where Chavez is directing his country, now that he has openly visited Iran.

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has invited Iran to invest in his country's oil and gas industries during talks with Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the Iranian president.


Talking to reporters in Tehran, Chavez said that he hoped Iran would invest in Venezuela's Orinoco region.

"We invite Iranian companies to the Gulf of Venezuela and the delta for gas production," he said on a visit to Iran as part of a four-nation mission that included Qatar, Russia and Belarus.

Iranian investment in Venezuela last year was worth $1 billion, most of it in oil and gas and engineering sectors.

Venezuela and Iran are both members of the Opec and fierce critics of the US and the pair pledged to stand by each other in their struggles with the United States.

Chavez met Ahmedinejad on Saturday and said his country would "stand by Iran at any time and under any condition", Iran's state-run television reported.

Forbes magazine seems to think that Chavez's little junket may backfire, insofar as there is growing criticism at home and political forces beginning to amass against him, and that the seat he is seeking on the UN Security Council when vacated by Argentina is something less than a "sure thing."
What is clear is this in terms of a Crossroads: China, Russia, Venezuela and Iran are beginning to more closely coalesce in terms of producing a new conglomeration of oil-producing nations. And these nations are forming their links not so closely with regard to the hard economics (though that would certainly be the case for Putin's Russia) but with a greater eye to the politics involved. Additionally, Venezuela has been tacitly providing supplies and cash for Hezbollah -- hence, no shock that Chavez now shakes hands with Ahmadinejad.
SECOND ISSUE:
We have reached another Crossroad, as I predicted; not Homicide Bombers (HB) from without per se, but individual Islamic-driven idealogues from within.
This time, in Seattle, a Muslim opened fire on and shot six people at a Jewish center, killing one woman. 30-year-old Naveed Afzal Haq hid behind a potted plant and put a gun to the head of a 13-year-old girl to gain entry.
Haq, a Muslim, told authorities he was angered by the war in Iraq and U.S. military cooperation with Israel.

"He pointedly blamed the Jewish people for all of these problems," Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said at a news conference Saturday.

According to a statement of probable cause, Haq told a 911 dispatcher: "These are Jews and I'm tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East."
To those who have the ability, training and wherewithal: carry.
More points on the compass to the Crossroads.
BZ

6 Comments:

Blogger bigwhitehat said...

I wonder if that 12th Imam has said anything to Ahmadamnnutjob about eliminating the Venezuelan infidels?

Tue Aug 01, 07:24:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Bloviating Zeppelin said...

Likely not. I'll wait for August 22nd.

BZ

Tue Aug 01, 07:44:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Gayle said...

Trust me BZ, I carry. I also have the training and wherewithall. :)

I posted regarding Castro too, so we are sort of on the same page, only you did a better job of it by far!

Tue Aug 01, 08:10:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Bloviating Zeppelin said...

O goodie, Castro and Ahmadinnerjacket aligned with Chavez -- Cindy's best friend! It doesn't get any better than this. Or does it?

Keep on carryin', Gayle.

BZ

Tue Aug 01, 08:22:00 AM PDT  
Blogger A Jacksonian said...

An interesting quartet, to say the least... Russia, with vast oil reserves, is heavily dependant upon the West to supply expertise in finding it and getting to it. A large fraction of the Russian infrastructure for oil is Soviet built and deployed from the 1960's, and shows it. In '91 the concept was that it would take two decades to replace it all with modern equipment just to *sustain* production. A bit better off in natural gas, however, as that is easier to maintain, infrastructure-wise. Downturns in the Russian economy, terrorist bombings, the Chechen campaign and Putin trying to turn the clock back are not helping matters. And Western companies will take a very dim view of seeing any investments *nationalized*.

Iran, getting lots of neat toys to play with, trying to get WMDs to place on their SCUD variants and generally exporting a Foreign Legion concept to intimidate the Middle East and SE Europe. What they have is a bad demographic problem with the majority of the population under 30 and a leadership that is exactly one deep at all positions. Plus they don't trust their own regular Army and Police and need to call in the Revolutionary/Special Guard and Basij when putting down *peaceful* protests. If Hezbollah fails them, then Iran is on the ropes and will be seen as that veritable 'weak horse'.

Venezuela. How to use natural resources to build a Socialist Welfare State that then collapses. A work in progress, give it a year or two. The work of Hezbollah with FARC and Shining Path is more worrisome than Venezuela, come to think of it. Help Iran too much, and FARC might suddenly materialize as a real nation hell bent on dictating their will using drug trade profits to arm guerillas in South America. Have to watch out, Hugo, you don't know exactly where that anthill you are poking leads to...

China, a huge nation with a problem of not being able to modernize and remain a totalitarian state. Plus they have real production bottlenecks and aren't able to get their agricultural sector into the 19th Century yet. They are finding that having a cell phone system also allows the instant spread of information via text messaging on low bandwidth. Plus, cracking down on *internal* web sites is turning out to be a real pain as cheap computers allow data to be quickly duplicated amongst many individuals and then put back up online within hours or minutes of its disappearance. If they ever get properly industrialized and get a real middle class, they can eat up Russian and Iranian oil like nobody's business. Biggest threat is to sell of their purchased US debt. Biggest problem is that they would sink their own economy while only mildly bruising the US economy, which would recover in a couple of months. China would be set back a decade.

Cuba under Fidel. Brutal dictatorship with friendly western mouthpieces. Under Raul? Who? Biggest threat is allowing China to pump oil off the North American continental shelf, just outside territorial waters... Biggest problem, the occupant of the shelf just to the North.

They can all take *aim* at the United States, even pull the various triggers... *hitting* the US in a credible way without getting oneself vaporized is another problem. The US has kept its remaining nuclear arsenal tested and ready, Russia has not and China has a limited capability for delivery sans shipping it in.

I just cannot take this quartet seriously. The concept of 'circular firing squad' keeps coming to mind for some reason... don't just look at their strengths, remember that their *weaknesses* are also cumulative.

Tue Aug 01, 04:13:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Bloviating Zeppelin said...

AJ: that would be very true. But I find it interesting insofar as, more and more, they are finding their voices, testing their strengths, making alliances and working propaganda like it's not been worked for a time -- and, on the other hand, both Israel and the US are absolutely ABYSMAL with our "working" of the media and creating our own propaganda and, folks, trust me, if you ain't in the propaganda game you are playing with one arm tied behind your back because it's ALL about the P-word.

BZ

Tue Aug 01, 04:52:00 PM PDT  

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