Day: April 21, 2010

The Monroe Doctrine? (Again?)

Inkwell Institute

International Studies

Latin American Desk

Do you remember the Monroe Doctrine?  In case your history is a bit shaky….

policy that was introduced on December 2, 1823, which stated that further efforts by European countries to colonize land or interfere with states in the Americas would be viewed by the United States of America as acts of aggression requiring US intervention.

Okay you got your history lesson in for the week….but what the Hell am I going on about?

The Doctrine has been used on Cuba, Grenada and a couple of other countries in Central and South America….but why is it being dredged up again?

Do you recall about three years ago when the “Tripartite of Demons”  were North Korea, Iran and Venezuela, well at least the Chavez was the demon?    But in the last couple of years the rhetoric toward Chavez has seem to cool down…..but there is something that I cannot understand…that is that the silence of the Neocons on a developing situation in Venezuela……

Russia has agreed to help Venezuela draw up plans to build a nuclear power plant.

Atomic energy was one of many areas of cooperation discussed as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made his first trip to the South American country.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday the goal of the power plant is to develop nuclear energy for “peaceful purposes,” and not to develop a bomb.

In the past Chavez has been a concern to the US…mainly because of his desire for a build up of arms and such…..will he be a thorn in the side of the US?

We have our problems with Iran, North Korea and minor ones for Pakistan, India and Israel…not to mention all the countries that are moving to build nuke power plants (for peaceful purposes) (sarcasm was intended)…..

I will be waiting to hear from the Hispanic-phobes on this situation…and just what exactly will the response be from the US of A….

Years ago…I predicted that there would be a new ever expanding “Cold War” and arms race….and it looks like the weapon of choice is the ever popular nuke….go figure…..and yes…that was also sarcasm….

And there is more….the US has an agreement with Russia on arms and the news coming out of Moscow is not good……

The new U.S.-Russian arms control treaty is a much better deal for Russia than its predecessor, but Moscow reserves the right to withdraw from it if a planned U.S. missile defense system grows into a threat, Russia’s foreign minister said Tuesday.

The deal can be used somehow to justify the nukes for Venezuela?  I wait for those darn pesky Neocons to jump all over this as a talking point against the Obama agenda….and I wait!

Fascist To The Right

Inkwell Institute

International Group

European Desk

Since the death of the Soviet union and the birth of democracy in the counties that were controlled politically by the USSR, the  far right has been making in roads into the system……the most notable is Hungary…..but there is a saving grace there….the democratic process, elections if you will……..

Hungary’s Jews are worried following the stunning electoral success over the weekend of the far-right Jobbik party, which ran on an openly anti-Semitic and anti-Roma platform and accuses Jews of driving Hungary into a steep economic downturn.

“Today is a very dark time for modern Hungary,” Peter Feldmajer, president of the Hungarian Jewish community, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. “It is a very dangerous direction not just for Hungarian Jews, but for Hungarian democracy.”

Jobbik, which has ties to a nationalist, uniformed militia called the Hungarian Guard, took third place in the Sunday elections, winning 16.6 percent of the national vote, just short of the incumbent Socialists, who collapsed to 20% of the vote after eight years in power.
It said Jobbik’s electoral success proved “that acceptable anti-Semitism, xenophobia and racism are still alive and well in parts of Europe,”

This is a growing problem in European politics……the far right has made in-roads in Switzerland and Holland and even some of the more progressive democracies….and now with the economic crisis still looming, I look for it to continue to grow as people’s frustrations grow……Nationalism is on the rise and not just in Europe….the longer the economy sucks the more popular it will become……

I realize that most Americans could care less what happens in Hungary because it has NOTHING to do with the States…..think about that……..sounds kinda like the thinking in the 1930’s and that lead to a large international problem……