Barack and Hugo

I am not saying it rises to the level of a full on boy crush, but Hugo Chavez and Barack Obama appear to have quite the little mutual admiration society going. This week Chavez called the U.S. president "a good guy," saying that real revolutionaries realize that any criticism Obama makes of the Caracas regime is just election-year politicking.

"Obama is campaigning. He's a candidate," Chavez told a Venezuelan television station. "I hope the real revolutionaries understand well. I think that Barack Obama — aside from 'the president' — is a good guy.""It has all been a hoax by the imperialists and global far right: that uranium is being enriched in Venezuela, that we're setting up missiles here, that we're supporting terrorism." Chavez even cast his symbolic vote for his choice for the United States presidency, Barack Obama. In a campaign speech Saturday night, Chavez equated the agenda of his own challenger, Henrique Capriles, with that of Romney, saying both men represent the callously selfish, capitalist elite.

Chavez claims Capriles, a moderate former governor, is trying to trick Venezuelans into believing he genuinely cares about the poor, the core of Venezuelan president’s constituency. “I believe the person to best explain the loser’s agenda isn’t Barack Obama but rather Romney, because it’s the extreme right-wing agenda that borders on the fascism of the United States,” Chavez told tens of thousands of supporters in the western city of Maracaibo.

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In turn, Obama recently dismissed any real threat from the Venezuelan dictator. In June he said that Chavez poses no "serious" national security threat to the United States.

"We're always concerned about Iran engaging in destabilizing activity around the globe," Obama told a Spanish language television station based in Miami. "But overall, my sense is that what Mr. Chavez has done over the last several years has not had a serious national security impact on us.

"If the U.S. empire succeeds in consolidating its dominance, then the humankind has no future. Therefore, we have to save the humankind and put an end to the U.S. empire"

Hugo Chavez speech, University of Tehran

Let's take a look at Obama's new bff. He has a long record of funding revolutionary narco traffickers in neighboring Columbia. He has allowed the Iranians to establish Sam missile bases in his country. When he last met Ahmadinejad in Caracas, he wisecracked about the big atomic bomb they were building. He's nationalized everything in sight and obliterated the opposition party and its media outlets. Several years ago Chavez threatened to sell his 21 plane fleet of United States made F-16 Fighting Falcons's to Iran, in direct contravention of their original purchase agreement.

Iran has just shipped the first of four oil tankers destined for Venezuela. Their two presidents have pledged an "axis of unity" against United States imperialism. Chávez pledged that Venezuela would "stay by Iran at any time and under any condition." He said "We are with you and with Iran forever. As long as we remain united we will be able to defeat (U.S.) imperialism, but if we are divided they will push us aside". One must presume that that includes helping the Iranians establish a terrorist beachhead in the western hemisphere to continue their asymmetric campaign against the United States and its zionist cohorts.

Iran and its Hezbollah proxies have been directly implicated in the Argentinean synagogue bombings as well as similar acts of terror around the globe, including last week's bombing in Bulgaria. Read Stephen Johnson's thorough and insightful study on Iran's efforts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies' recent comprehensive report, Iran's Influence in the Americas.

In all seriousness, I do not understand our president's nonchalance and dismissive remarks about the Venezuelan/Iranian threat. Mitt Romney has, I think correctly, chided the President on this issue. The Obama campaign retorted that the criticism was a way to "score cheap political points by blustering and misrepresenting the President’s record while failing to outline any coherent foreign policy strategy.”

“Because of President Obama’s leadership, our position in the Americas is much stronger today than before he took office," said a statement by campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt. "At the same time, Hugo Chavez has become increasingly marginalized and his influence has waned. It’s baffling that Mitt Romney is so scared of a leader like Chavez whose power is fading, while Romney continues to remain silent about how to confront al-Qaeda or how to bring our troops home from Afghanistan." 

On this one, I go with Romney. Chavez health may be failing but I think that his power has not been marginalized at all. Wishful thinking. You only have to look at Chavez actions and statements and I suggest that our president take him at his word. His ability to wreak havoc by consorting with the Iranians will cause the civilized world continued harm for years to come.