The war profiteering corporate news monopolies' and other corporate/fascist support--the support needed to keep Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and a few other top criminals out of jail--is dependent on Bush kneecapping some South American leaders, to force them back into the corporate plunder fold, and away from the peaceful, democratic, and anti-neo-liberal Bolivarian Revolution. This would be probably socialist Pres. Michele Batchelet in Chile, former steelworker now Pres. Lula da Silva in Brazil and socialist Pres. Tabare Vazquez in Uruguay, who have--so far--become more Bolivarian, not less, despite bullying, arm-twisting, knee-capping and tempting bribes over the last year or so.
Lula da Silva has openly and publicly backed the Chavez government in Venezuela. Tabare Vazquez turned down a "free trade" bribe that was aimed at "divide and conquer" (re Mercosur, the So. American trade group that Venezuela belongs to, and will soon be--or already is--a full member of). And Michele Batchelet--often the outlier leftist among So. American leaders--suffered politically when she failed to fully back Venezuela's bid for a UN Security Council seat. (Chile abstained in that Bushite vs. So. America fight, and Venezuela lost.) Batchelet's own ambassador to Venezuela publicly criticized her to caving in to Bushite pressure.
Threatening these countries, and shoving "free trade" down their throats, along with acquiescence to U.S. boots on the ground at various installations, would be combined with Donald Rumsfeld's "PNAC" for South America, laid out in an op-ed in the WaPo on 12/1/07, which is basically economic and military warfare against the oil-rich Andes democracies--Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, and their close ally, Argentina, the countries that are also leading the way against U.S. domination and World Bank/IMF neo-liberal ruination. Rumsfeld's launching pad will be Colombia, one of the few South American countries with a rightwing government, and the one upon which the Bush Junta has larded billions of our tax dollars in military aid, to a country and a military with very close ties to fascist death squads, of the kind that chainsaw union organizers and throw their body parts into mass graves.
The Bush Junta has "lost" South America. Democracy is flourishing in that region these days, and there are strong alliances, with common goals, not only among Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina--and also Nicaragua--but also between these countries and Brazil in particular, and to some extent with Chile and Uruguay. All leftist (majorityist) governments. Many with bitter and horrendous memories of the U.S.-imposed heinous, rightwing dictators in the '70s and '80s. The Bolivarian goals are national/regional independence and self-determination, national/regional development and control of financing, regional trade, and social justice. Bush Junta/corporate predator/World Bank/IMF policy in this region is anathema. It has been widely rejected. So the goals of the Bush Junta now are to "divide and conquer"--to continue trying to split countries off from these alliances, and to punish the countries that have shown leadership. They have billions and billions of stolen U.S. taxpayer dollars with which to try to bribe and bully, or destabilize and topple good democratic governments.
In Bush's final year as emperor, Rumsfeld also wants to further weaken any remaining "checks and balances" in our own government (i.e., that fusty 'ol Congress where some Democrats oppose "free trade" with Colombia cuz of their practice of chainsawing union leaders), so that the U.S. can act "swiftly" in support of "friends and allies" (fascist thugs planning coups) in the region. Horrible fascists in the oil/gas rich rural provinces of Bolivia are already causing serious trouble. Colombian rightwing paramilitaries are also active in the Venezuelan border area. These are the kinds of "friends and allies" that Rumsfeld wants the U.S. to act "swiftly" in support of. The Bushites are also pouring millions of dollars into rightwing political groups in South America--to bolster the rich elites--through USAID/NED and covert budgets.
Rumsfeld further wants a "free trade" deal with Colombia, so that more of Colombia's land can be devoted to environmentally ruinous corporate biofuel production and major drug trafficking--for purposes of economic warfare and chaos-creation. And, finally, he wants a sort of "Voice of America" on the 'internets' to counter the "propaganda" of people like you and me, and www.venezuelanalysis.com, www.axisoflogic.com, and www.narconews.com, who are telling the truth about the success of democracy, and about Bush Junta warfare against it, in Latin America.
So that's my theory. Stealing Mideast oil has proven to be such trouble--and so problematic--that Rumsfeld had to "retire" from that activity (--is this the real reason he left the DoD?) and turn his "talents" to other oil fields; also, obsession with the Middle East has led to "neglect" of South America, and the Corporate Rulers cannot be happy about that. Revolt against Corporate Rule is spreading fast and wide in the U.S. "back yard." I think this is why Bush bothered to visit Latin American countries last March. There are some countries he dare not set foot in. There were huge demos against him in the countries he did visit. And, remarkably, he got publicly lectured, from Brazil to Mexico, from both leftist and rightist leaders, on the SOVEREIGNTY of Latin American countries, with the rightwing President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, even mentioning Venezuela as an example.
What these leaders all apparently knew--and what we heard nothing about from our corporate news monopolies--is that the Bushites were intimately involved in various coup attempts against the democratic Chavez government in Venezuela, as recently as last year (in cahoots with Colombia paramilitaries planning to assassinate Chavez). Things are not well for the Bushites in South America, and if they don't put it "right," I think the Corporate Rulers may feed them to the dogs.
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"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.htmlDiscussion here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x323889