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But I remember, wa-a-a-a-ay back during Obama's inauguration week, Obama getting on Spanish-language TV and calling Chavez "a threat to the region" and so on. He wasn't even president yet, and he was bad-mouthing Chavez. I wrote it off to bad advisors at the time, and God knows Obama had a lot on his plate that week. But it did echo back to Obama's campaign speech to the Miami mafia, bad-mouthing Chavez. I had written that off to the dangerous venue. Obama was introducing the notion of reapproachment with Cuba. I figured he had to bash somebody that that crowd hates. However, both things were not mistakes, in U.S. relations with Venezuela. They were harbingers.
And neither was this appointment a mistake. It was a very pointed insult.
I still hold out the hope--as to my personal opinion of Obama--that he simply has no control over U.S. policy in Latin America. But I have to admit that the worst could be true, that he is wholly in accord with the warmongers in the Pentagon and the economic warfare of "free trade for the rich," enforced by the very big U.S. military buildup in the region. It's a difficult situation to read. It starts with the coup d'etat here--the Bush Junta--followed by a limited countercoup circa 2006, with the CIA ousting Rumsfeld, in coalition with Daddy Bush who was rescuing Bush Jr from CIA retribution and U.S. military brass who didn't want to nuke Iran. Nancy Pelosi blurted out the deal. "Impeachment is off the table." Immunity from prosecution for the Bush Junta principles was the bargaining chip. And, amidst these arrangements, it was decided to let the Democrats win in 2006, and in 2008, but only in a very limited way. Obama had to agree to these terms to become president--no investigation, no prosecution of the war criminals and master thieves who had preceded him, continuation of the Forever War, very limited domestic reforms and large areas of policy--for instance, Latin America--would be given over to the likes of Jim DeMint (Diebold-SC), John "death squad" Negroponte (advisor to Hillary Clinton during the Honduran coup), William Brownfield (Bushwhack ambassador to Colombia, still in place, who signed the secretly negotiated U.S./Colombia military agreement), Pentagon war profiteers and other servants of Corporate Rule, including front person Hillary Clinton.
IF this is what occurred, maybe it was the best that Obama could do, to get into a position of power to do SOME good. Or maybe he's just a malleable opportunist. It is truly hard to say. But there IS a quite arguable assessment that, someone with good intentions inheriting the White House--the seat of power in Imperial Rome--after a rightwing coup d'etat whose operatives remain extremely powerful, would look just like this, to us peons: an inexplicable continuation of coup policy with only small, incremental, almost invisible changes, worked from within, to try to gain control of the hijacked mechanisms of the U.S. government. It is arguable that this is what is going on with the Forever War, that Obama is very gradually bringing it to an end. Arguable on health care. Arguable on a lot of things, even on Latin America (although Latin America is looking more and more like the "circle the wagons" region for our Imperial Rulers).
It's hard to give up hope--isn't it?--that somehow we might achieve a just and representative government, without having to seriously attack and reform control systems like the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines, without having to truly awaken, as a people, and take our government back. Hope that somebody else will do it. Hope that at least somebody in our government cares about the rest of us and about social justice and peace in the world, and is quietly working for the good, against great odds. I find myself torn, like many other people, between those hopes and the reality of what we are able to see.
Venezuelans do not deserve this insult, nor any of the bile that has been laid upon them. They deserve our praise and support for electing a government that acts in their interests. That is what WE stand for, as a people. That is what WE want. But democracy is not easy to recover, once lost--especially when it is lost in this mind-boggling, 'Alice in Wonderland' way, covered over with illusion and secret doings. I find Chavez's bluntness refreshing, in this situation. I don't really want pretend diplomacy from our government. I want genuine diplomacy and commitment to peaceful ways. But I am afraid that we are hanging over the precipice of yet another war, for yet another ill purpose. And I simply don't know where our president stands on this matter, but I am well aware that if he declares himself for "peace, respect and cooperation" in Latin America--as he did--and then ACTS ON IT, he will likely be removed. (Jim DeMint made that very clear when he held up Obama's appointments in Latin America until the Bushwhack-designed coup in Honduras could be completed. He and other Bushwhack operatives are running U.S. policy in Latin America, and Obama cannot challenge this, if he is of a mind to.)
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