Another Obama war, this time in Latin America

[IndianaGreen]

Colombia to build new military base on Venezuelan border

December 20, 2009, 8:31 am

BOGOTA (AFP) - Colombia has announced it will build a new military base near its border with Venezuela, in a move likely to further strain its tense ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Defense Minister Gabriel Silva said Friday that the base, located on the Guajira peninsula near the city of Nazaret, would have up to 1,000 troops. Two air battalions would also be activated at other border areas.

"It is a strategic point from a defense point of view," Silva said.

The 1.5-million-dollar facility, paid for with Colombian tax funds, would also have a care facility for indigenous Wayuu people who live in the area, he added.

Army Commander General Oscar Gonzalez meanwhile announced Saturday that six air battalions were being activated, including two on the border with Venezuela.

Tensions between Venezuela and Colombia have been spurred by a US deal with Bogota allowing US forces to run anti-drug operations from Colombian bases.

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/6607053/colombia-to-build-new-military-base-on-venezuelan-border

Here is an important background article:

Official US Air Force Document Reveals the True Intentions Behind the US-Colombia Military Agreement

November 10, 2009 By Eva Gollinger

An official document from the Department of the US Air Force reveals that the military base in Palanquero, Colombia will provide the Pentagon with "...an opportunity for conducting full spectrum operations throughout South America..." This information contradicts the explainations offered by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and the US State Department regarding the military agreement signed between the two nations this past October 30th. Both governments have publicly stated that the military agreement refers only to counternarcotics and counterterrorism operations within Colombian territory. President Uribe has reiterated numerous times that the military agreement with the US will not affect Colombia's neighbors, despite constant concern in the region regarding the true objetives of the agreement. But the US Air Force document, dated May 2009, confirms that the concerns of South American nations have been right on target. The document exposes that the true intentions behind the agreement are to enable the US to engage in "full spectrum military operations in a critical sub-region of our hemisphere where security and stability is under constant threat from narcotics funded terrorist insurgencies...and anti-US governments..."

The military agreement between Washington and Colombia authorizes the access and use of seven military installations in Palanquero, Malambo, Tolemaida, Larandia, Apíay, Cartagena and Málaga. Additionally, the agreement allows for "the access and use of all other installations and locations as necessary" throughout Colombia, with no restrictions. Together with the complete immunity the agreement provides to US military and civilian personnel, including private defense and security contractors, the clause authorizing the US to utilize any installation throughout the entire country - even commercial aiports, for military ends, signifies a complete renouncing of Colombian sovereignty and officially converts Colombia into a client-state of the US.

The Air Force document underlines the importance of the military base in Palanquero and justifies the $46 million requested in the 2010 budget (now approved by Congress) in order to improve the airfield, associated ramps and other installations on the base to convert it into a US Cooperative Security Location (CSL). "Establishing a Cooperative Security Location (CSL) in Palanquero best supports the COCOM's (Command Combatant's) Theater Posture Strategy and demonstrates our commitment to this relationship. Development of this CSL provides a unique opportunity for full spectrum operations in a critical sub-region of our hemisphere where security and stability is under constant threat from narcotics funded terrorist insurgencies, anti-US governments, endemic poverty and recurring natural disasters."

It's not difficult to imagine which governments in South America are considered by Washington to be "anti-US governments". The constant agressive declarations and statements emitted by the State and Defense Departments and the US Congress against Venezuela and Bolivia, and even to some extent Ecuador, evidence that the ALBA nations are the ones perceived by Washington as a "constant threat". To classify a country as "anti-US" is to consider it an enemy of the United States. In this context, it's obvious that the military agreement with Colombia is a reaction to a region the US now considers full of "enemies".

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23098

[rollingrock]

1. If he's trying to start World War III

I think he's doing a good job so far.

[IndianaGreen]

3. He is also conducting combat operations in the Philippines

which is something that Bush started, and Obama has decided to continue.

[rollingrock]

4. Obama seems to have removed all (human rights) conditions

for sending military aid to the repressive government of the Phillipines...at the request of US defense contractors.

living up to that peace award, I see.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Laelth]

2. k&r for exposure. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Joe the Liberal]

5. The US will always be involved in some kind of illegal war.....

We've already been to Asia (Vietnam), we're in the middle east now and once we're done, my guess, is that we'll go to South America next. They will create some kind of new boogieman like they did with terrorists and communists and then head on over to repeat history. Republicans once they're back in power will usher in the whole thing too and create some bullshit excuse like "Hugo Chavez has acquired weapons from Iran and plans to use them on us, we need to attack now". They will fear monger everyone into believing it and we'll be in another bullshit war, as always.

[IndianaGreen]

7. Don't forget Africa, and I mean Western Africa where there is oil

[Joe the Liberal]

8. Yea there's another possible target......

it's either South America or Africa, for Africa the new boogieman will be "pirate terrorists" or something along those lines. They (the pirates) will bomb some US ship full of tourists and that will be the excuse to invade the country of origin that the pirate terrorists came from. Rinse and repeat.

[blues90]

15. I am so sick of the damn wars

The bases and the very idea that wars ever solve anything. Pretty soon we will have nothing but bases and prisons and weapons and a choice or some sort of toxic wasre called food.

Hell lets just go for the gold and blow the entire planet up and get it over with. Maybe then those who do survive can sort it all out when they realize just how insane they are.

What ever happened to that bio lab that was to to be built in Maryland , the one that is sealed off and goed deep into the earth?

Remember that damn thing?

We can't treat and prevent disease and get rid of all the toxins , instead we have some scientific freaks coming up with more and more horrific ways to end live and alter life into some mutant form.

Way back in the late 50's in school we were given an assignment to design a city and I had it all done but could never figure out were to put the waste and garbage. GM came to my Jr high school which were called science exhibites and GM had a working solar powered car that worked and we were told in 10 years this is what we would be driving , well that was 1961 and we still don't have them .

We can develope all sorts of ways to kill and disfigure people and we can allow freaks like Monsanto to play with genes and screw up nature and we can invest in everything that is bad and destructive so why not get it over already. Go ahead freaks push the button I'm as ready as I will ever be to be evaporated.

I read about some de-ranged freak who found it fun to run over mother duck or saw people who would see a turtle crossing a street and steer out of their way just to kill it and for what . What do they get out of this?

What a bunch of brain dead freaks we have , let it end , let the people who believe in rapture go do it , let the freaks who want to invent better bombs use them and let the freaks who feel some sort of hole in the earth called a bomb shelter climb out and see the wasteland and let them find a way to live after that.

We have seen countless movies after a nuclear blast and still many think this is a joke or something to be desired and played with.

There is plenty of real evidence of the affects of this sort of insane thinking which is always ignored as if it was a movie and what do we do , we allow it and vote in freaks who promote it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. This is the continuation of 160 years of

Empire in the backyard. Not new, at all.

And until the Empire collapses, the Empire has a logic that no matter who is in the WH, they have to do it...

[Mari333]

9. reading the OP was like reading something from 2005!

I feel like things are the same.

[ProSense]

10. That's a log of propaganda, but where does it say Obama is launching a war? n/t

[HuckleB]

11. I'm trying to figure that out myself.

And I'm not sure what war Obama started, in the first place. What warrants the term "another?"

:shrug:

[rollingrock]

12. Illegal wars aren't usually declared

this military preparation and escalation in Columbia is very reminiscent of the bloody 'low-intensity warfare' operations conducted by Reagan in Latin America all throughout the 1980s....they too were never declared or announced.

[bertman]

17. Reading between the lines, it seems safe to say that the U.S.'s intention to build FIVE

military bases in Colombia with this one on the Venezuelan border is an amazing coincidence in that those bases are right next door to a HUGE petroleum reserve that is currently being protected from U.S. oil interests. Oh, and don't forget that President Chavez has nationalized industries and banks so he is now an enemy of the people. And by "the people" I mean the people who covet that oil and want Chavez dead.

You have to build forward distribution points if you want to use a major military force on foreign soil. But since President Obama is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize I'm sure we (and the Venezuelans) have nothing to worry about.

[timeforpeace]

14. We're finally killing all those Yemeni's been buggin us for so long, too!

[salguine]

16. Colombia can build a military base for $1.5 million? That same base would cost us half a billion.