The Venezuelan “Threat”

[Judi Lynn]

Weekend Edition March 13-15, 2015

The Mental Ideology of Revolution

The Venezuelan “Threat”

by ANDREW KAHN


We are being told by President Obama that Venezuela is a national security threat to the United States of America. Some say it is necessary for this to be claimed so that Obama can legally take punitive actions against Venezuelan officials. Pause for a moment and let the phrase sink in. “National security threat”.

As you let this statement marinate in your mind, consider the abstract idea of working backwards to reach a conclusion. A child determines that vegetables are poisonous. The vegetables aren’t poisonous because they are poisonous but because the child has decided that he or she does not want to eat the vegetables. A reason is needed to justify an action – in this case, the illogical idea that the vegetables are not to be eaten because, well, it doesn’t matter why. So, the vegetables have conveniently become poisonous and the child screams to his or her mother that “They are poison! I will get sick and go to the hospital and turn purple and orange and green if I eat them!” Clearly, none of this is accurate, but a pretext is needed to justify the action of not eating the vegetables. Is this rational?

So it is with Venezuela. There is no national security threat to the United States. Period. As the child who claims the vegetables are poison, so President Obama has decided that the Bolivarian Republic is a national security threat to the United States to justify an escalation in what has become a perpetual war against the socialist revolution that began over a decade.

The ruling United States regime – backed in its mission against Venezuela by the nominal opposition party – has made various claims regarding Venezuela since “We don’t like that the Revolution has been democratically elected for 15 years” is not the most politically tenable reason for claiming a national security threat.

Chief among the claims are that Venezuela has cracked down on dissent, imprisoned opposition leaders, allowed impunity for murderous national police and is engaged in corruption. While these questions have been refuted, it should be stated once again why they are not only incorrect but are hopelessly hypocritical – if they were correct – in light of United States’ policy regarding Venezuela’s neighbors.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/13/the-venezuelan-threat/

[geek tragedy]

1. "Refuted" does not mean what this person thinks it means.

Chief among the claims are that Venezuela has cracked down on dissent, imprisoned opposition leaders, allowed impunity for murderous national police and is engaged in corruption. While these questions have been refuted, it should be stated once again why they are not only incorrect but are hopelessly hypocritical – if they were correct – in light of United States’ policy regarding Venezuela’s neighbors.

The imprisonment of opposition leaders is an indisputed fact. Ledezma and Lopez--as repugnant as they are--are opposition leaders and they have been arrested and jailed at the orders of Maduro himself.

Rounding up opposition leaders at the orders of the head of state himself can be plausibly, though not necessarily, be interpreted as "cracking down on dissent."

Also, if Venezuela's government isn't engaged in corruption, congratulations to it being the first government to achieve that status. Especially after 15 years of rule by the same party.

The hypocrisy point is well-taken, however.

[fasttense]

4. The opposition leaders were released

alive, unlike in Pinochet's Chili which the US helped and supported even when the dead bodies turned up.

The article makes it clear no country is free of corruption including Venezuela. But the US seems to single out Venezuela for condemnation.

[geek tragedy]

5. The US, Venezuela and most other

countries are guilty of cynicism and hypocrisy when it comes to critiquing the human rights of other nations.

[bvar22]

2. You would think that a country like ours...

...that uses the word "democracy" so much,
would have more respect for the real thing.


When our Working Class & Poor realize we have more in common with each other
than we have in common with the RICH and their Mouth Pieces in Washington,
them we can have change too!

[Doctor_J]

3. The only people who believe this "threat" stuff are the hopeless war mongers

and the BOG.