Posted by
mgraves on Monday, August 21, 2006 8:40:07 PM
Chavez cuddles up to Ahmadinejad
The Axis of Evil has been gaining members at a rather alarming rate. Syria joined by hitching its horse to the Persian juggernaut. Russia is a silent partner, having been providing nuclear technology to Iran and undermining US and EU-3 attempts to halt Iran's march to the nuclear bomb. China, likewise, fits the category of silent partner. Although in view of their subsidization of NKorea and collaboration with the mad midget of Pyongyang, one must wonder whether the PRC is really a silent partner of the Axis of Evil.
Chavez is combining east and west, bringing together the occidental with the oriental. Chavez has formed alliances with the Communist government of Evo Morales of Bolivia. Chavez provides energy subsidies to Cuba (and Massachusetts). Chavez has made new arms and materiel purchases from that silent partner, Russia.
Chavez has been cultivating ties with the dictatorial regimes of the Orient for some time, with commercial ties growing stronger. And now this:
"We stand by Iran at every moment, in any situation," Mr Chavez said in Tehran after receiving the golden High Medallion of the Islamic Republic from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Venezuela, Syria and Cuba were the only countries to oppose referring Iran to the UN Security Council at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in February.
That sounds an awful lot like a pledge of military support. While it may be easy to dismiss third world dictatorships incapable of operating one day without rampant corruption, it may not be wise to do so when they all appear to be gathering together.
And they say UBL would never cooperate with a secularist; is UBL more of a fundamentalist than Ahmadinejad? The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Me and my cousin against the world; Me and my brother against my cousin; I'll take care of my brother. People who claim Islamofacists would never cooperate with someone who is secular are either willfully blind, or painfully stupid.
A pressing situation grows ever more pressing as the membership of the Axis of Evil grows and the administration listens ever more to those who seek its demise. (See Axis of Evil, part II for a previous examination of this topic).