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January 20, 2003

How Does the World See Us?


Mishedlo Wants to Know.


Posted to TMF Mishedlo board

This is the view from Venezuela.
From Mish.....
If you are going to do something come hell or high water, then just do it.
Right on!
From my viewpoint, Bush probably looks very weak right now. He has no concensus, anti-war sentiment seems to be building up as many US citizens have come to realize this is all about oil and revenge not weapons. If Hussein has weapons he sure hid them well. Overseas support is probably wavering as well. But is it? Was it ever there in the first place? Enquiring minds demand to be enlightened.
[snip]
Not interested in hearing from people living in the US on this.
Interesting way to argue. You state a point, Bush is weak, but you won't let your countrymen refute you.

If you think it's about oil, you just don't have a clue about oil. The world is awash in oil. Control of oil passed from consuming countries to producing countries almost 30 years ago. To corner oil Bush is going top have to invade Venezuela, Canada, Mexico, The North Sea countries, the Middle East, Nigeria and Indonesia just to mention the most abundant sources.

The reason oil prices spiked recently had nothing to do with Iraq and everything with the Venezuelan political situation. We shut down production of over 3 million barrels a day. Venezuela, the world's fifth largest exporter of oil, shut down its production. That would reduce world inventories in a hurry. But the rest of OPEC has already agreed to up production between 1.2 and 1.5 million barrels a day. I suppose the rest of the shortfall will be taken up by non OPEC oil producers.

Why bomb the hell out of Iraq and spend billion on munitions and even more billions in bringing Iraq back out of the stone age when you can buy their oil at under $30 a barrel? Defies every kind of logic.

What does Venezuela think about Bush and the US? We don't, we are too busy trying to solve our own problems with Chavez. If the US wants to bomb the hell out of Iraq that's fine by us.

A more interesting question is what does Venezuela think about Saddam Hussein. It so happens that in his first years in government Chavez visited all the bad guys who have managed to stay in power for a long long time. Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein were high on his list. Foremost on Chavez's list of questions was: "How do I too stay in power for 20 years or more?" Any friend of Chavez is our enemy. We would be more than happy to see Saddam Hussein dead.

We also believe that Bush I didn't finish the job. He should have, at least, destroyed all the equipment of the Imperial Guard even if he let Sadman live. The US has been playing a loser's game since Vietnam because the political will to win the war was not there. You should only go to war if you aim to win the war. No pussy-footing!

As for Europe, they love appeasement. They remember how well it worked against Hitler and they would like to see it work the magic again. They should recall Churchill's words:
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half.
Sir Winston Churchill

"Owing to the neglect of our defences and the mishandling of the German problem in the last five years, we seem to be very near the bleak choice between War and Shame. My feeling is that we shall choose Shame, and then have War thrown in a little later, on even more adverse terms than at present."
Winston Churchill in a letter to Lord Moyne, 1938

Denny Schlesinger
Caracas - Venezuela

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