Chavez is at it again

Hugo Chavez is shouting loudly from the rooftops again and proving that he will support any and every cause that is contrary to U.S. interests regardless of who might be at fault. I'm not going to argue the merits of the Israeli invasion of Gaza or the drawbacks. I will say that Hamas was launching rockets into Israel for days before Israel took any response. In addition, I will say that the ONLY way to win a war (if you are going to fight one at all) is with overwhelming force. That is a lesson taught us by World War 2, one which the Israelis seem to have learned quite well based on their disproportionate response. It is also one which the U.S. and Europe seemed to have missed. In fact, the lessen Europe learned from WWII wasn't to avoid war because of what is necessary to win it, but that appeasement wasn't the problem with Hitler, rather they just didn't go far enough in their appeasement. It is despicable. At least the U.S. learned the lesson that war is tragic and should be avoided but is occasionally necessary (whether you agree with the current one or not) even if we seemed to have missed the point about overwhelming force being necessary to win. At any rate, Chavez has now thrown his hat into the ring, not really with the Palestinian people as he is claiming, but with Hamas, a terrorist organization that maintains control over Gaza. This, in my opinion makes Chavez and by proxy Venezuela a terrorist sponsoring state. That has actually been true for years considering he props up the terrorist rebels in Colombia through funding (can't be proven) and by allowing them to flee into Venezuela to escape capture. However, he is again shouting at the world for all to hear that he is nothing more than a leftist dictator who would place his own power and interests ahead of his people and country. I can only hope that he is throwing his hat in with the losing side, but prophecy tends to speak otherwise, in my opinion, at least in the long term. However, all this said, I will wrap up by saying that nobody will pay any attention at all to Chavez right now. The world is distracted and he can and will say whatever he wants. I still wonder how long it will be before he invades his neighbors, perhaps in an effort to consolidate power in his own country if he can't get the constitution there changed to allow him to be President for life. Hmm... his term ends in 2010, I think, so expect something radical from him in the next couple of years.