2010: Year of Peace?

Late in 2009, al-Qaeda once again showed its nails and spread panic in the free world, forcing governments to multiply their investments in airport security. But what if the terrorist on the flight from Amsterdam was just a strategy of distraction so that everyone would be focused on airports, while the actual terrorist attack is to be directed by other objectives? Or what if all this is a strategic, ad hoc fabrication of the war industry? Go figure!

The only certainty is that the explosives in the terrorist’s underwear will be sufficient “testicular basis” to strengthen actions. As expressed by Obama in his speech receiving the untimely Nobel Peace Prize, “sometimes war is justified to maintain the peace” (a theory that seems to me that of unfaithful husbands when they say their love affairs help to preserve the marriage).

Hopefully Chavez, unrepentant and impulsive, does not end up being manipulated by American interests. In Washington they talk of a “cold war” when referring to the matter of Chavez and Colombia. Those who want to recover, even if by force, political and economic influence in this region, see the D.C. geopolitical view as their last bastion. Chavez is buying weapons from Russia and Tuscan aircrafts from Ecuador.

It would be difficult for the United States to openly go to war with Venezuela, but a strategy to support border riots and invest in weapons might work. Give support to Uribe for a conflict with Chavez (there are two million Colombian refugees in Venezuela); I doubt it would be a move that could be sustained because the cost to America’s image would be too high.

But something is going to happen because the provocation of Chavez, including the threat to close down Toyota, is irritating and power has limited tolerance. If not by outside forces, the internal disturbance will cause it because more than half of the Venezuelan population (the higher economic groups included) cannot stand the bile chatter of its president, who shows a need for psychiatric evaluation.