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Venezuela is None of Our Business!

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The New York Times had a news story today about Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. The story shows how “squatters” have burned down sugar cane farms of the wealthy landowners that, according to The NY Times, own 80% of the land, even though they make up only 5% of the population. Chavez seems to believe that the time has come for some land redistribution. That seems like a commonsense thing to do unless you believe in feudalism.

The Times story also reports that this is part of bringing the nation towards socialism. I’m sure that those words bring absolute joy to the hearts of those in the administration. I can see George W. Bush, walking in circles around the Oval Office, his hands clenched so tight you can actually see the white spots above his knuckles. People don’t realize it, but Dubya sees himself as “The Capitalist Avenger”. Any talk of socialism brings out George’s alter ego. Just as in the comic books of my youth, the word socialism turns our President into Dubya-man. Yes Dubya-man, who came to Earth from a swollen belly, kowtows to the right with both knees, and who disguised as The President of The United States, fights a never-ending battle for wealth, indifference, and the Neo-con way.

I can see him pondering his predicament. If only the Army wasn’t tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan. If only the Iraqi’s had done what Cheney and Rumsfeld said they would do, throw flowers at the feet of our soldiers. Instead of flowers, they are shooting RPG’s and exploding IED’s at us. This land redistribution thing in Venezuela must be driving him crazy. What if they did the same thing in the US? He wouldn’t put it past those Democrats. Everyday it costs more and more to keep them in line. The next thing you know, some wisenheimer will show up and claim that because corporations are recognized as individuals by the Constitution, and have the same rights as a person, you could conceivably say that in the United States 5% own 80% of the land. What with companies like ADM and Cargill among other’s, it’s the same situation here. Next thing they’ll be talking trash here.

Bush needn’t worry. Even the New York Times, the so-called “liberal elitist” newspaper had potshots at Chavez’s administration. They allude to the old fear of socialism with lines like this; “In an interview at the governor’s palace, where the halls are decorated with images of Che Guevara and Mr. Chávez, Governor Giménez said some friction should be expected on “the road to socialism.” And this; “This is agrarian terrorism encouraged by the state,” said Fhandor Quiroga, a landowner and head of Yaracuy’s chamber of commerce, pointing to dozens of kidnappings of landowners by armed gangs in the last two years.” But to give the Times credit, they also wrote this; “Bella Vista is one of 12 “communal towns” that Mr. Chávez plans to build this year. It has neat rows of identical three-bedroom homes for 83 families, a reading room, a radio station, a building with free high-speed Internet service, a school and a plaza with a bust of Simón Bolívar, Venezuela’s national hero.” That isn’t too shabby for families that were living in slums.

Still, nationalization does not sit well with our government. This hopefully, will not be another time that we intervene in another country’s affairs because they were on the road to socialism as we did in Nicaragua and Chile’. Another intervention at a time when the United States is looking like the pariah of the world would not be a good thing. It is time that our government learns how to keep out of our neighbor’s politics. We have enough problems here at home to keep us busy, without trying to solve what we see as a problem. The truth may be that Venezuela’s quest for equality in its class structure is a good thing. This could well be an experiment in Socialistic Democracy that succeeds. The poor that look up to Hugo Chavez should be left alone to succeed or to fail. Venezuela is not ours, and we have no business interfering in it’s internal policies. If as I believe, Bush has CIA agents in the country fomenting unrest, then we need an investigation from Congress. This sort of behavior from out government can no longer be condoned.

American interference in other nation’s internal policies has gotten us where we are today. By that I don’t mean wealth and having super power status, I mean being reviled by other nations and viewed with mistrust by even out own so-called “allies”. The time has come where we should learn to be a helpful friend to the rest of the world, and not an interfering bully. This might not be what Bush wants to hear, but hey, I don’t make this stuff up.
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Tim Gatto is Ret. US Army and has been writing against the Duopoly for the last decade. He has two books on Amazon, Kimchee Days or Stoned Colds Warriors and Complicity to Contempt.

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