…for the Mad Man
Now that Mad Maduro has been found to be talking from both sides of his mouth – claiming he wants “peace”, while pursuing annexation of a humungous “piece” of our country – the Government is intensifying efforts to counter the clear and present threat.
Up to now, we’ve been working along two fronts – the diplomatic and the judicial. On the former, we’ve been forming new alliances even as we bolster some of the older ones, like Caricom and the Commonwealth.
But the Madman has shown that he doesn’t give a hoot about his country’s reputation in the international arena. condemnations from our allies are like pouring water on a duck’s back!! And in some instances, he’s undermined fair-weather friends, like Gonsalves of St Vincent and Mottley of Barbados, by dangling his big Petrocaribe purse in front of them!! And that exposes the frailty of depending on friends: there’s always the possibility of them being swayed. This also applies to our Yankee friends, since 300 billion barrels of oil are more than 15 billion!!
On the judicial front, we’ve taken recourse to the ICJ – which is only the highest court in the world!! And even though this was done through stipulation of the Geneva Agreement, which Venezuela signed, here, again, Mad Maduro told that august body to go take a hike!! So, what do we do?? Well, Mad Maduro’s playing big and bad because he figures we can’t take him on with his massive army, navy and air force, since our population and our armed forces are so much smaller.
This is Mad Maduro’s strength, and it’s here where we gotta take him on; we gotta show him that, just like the bedroom, size ain’t all it’s cracked up to be on the battlefield!! Long gone are the days when armies used to face each other by massing their troops in opposing formations and rushing at each other to hack off limbs and torsos!! The Vietnamese showed that a weaker force can hit, run, and eventually wear down and defeat larger forces. The Afghans later showed the Russians and then the Americans that you can improvise weaponry that can neutralize the enemy’s more sophisticated ones. Right now, we’re witnessing a tremendous naval blockade by Yemen – a nation that doesn’t have a navy!! They’re using the new and accessible technology of drones and mobile missiles from their land bases to knock out ships hundreds of miles away!!
And this is what our Government is starting to do with the recent purchases of drones from the Yanks and Dornier airplanes from the Indians. Mad Maduro must know that if he’s mad enough to actually attack, we can give him a very bloody nose!!
Go Guyana!!
…for a common front
When facing a common foreign enemy, the position of the Opposition was established by Jagan and the PPP back in the 1960s, when Venezuela flexed their muscles, claimed our Essequibo, and annexed our half of Ankoko island. He gave unequivocal support to the PNC Government then, and to the end. Now that Mad Maduro has upped the ante from the west once again, the PNC, now in Opposition, have also thrown their weight behind the Govt.
But, unfortunately, there are Opposition elements who insist on quibbling on aspects of the Government’s stance — which undermines our strategy and which the enemy will exploit. The quibbling ranges from criticizing Government for accepting help from the “imperialist” Yanks and Brits to the purchase of planes from India. One claimed that we paid more for the Dornier aircraft than the Indian Air Force (IAF), when in fact we paid less.
They couldn’t convert the price in US dollars for the IAF planes – which was quoted in rupees – to compare properly!!
…for betrayal
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders explained Biden’s policy on Israel’s genocide on Palestinians: “One day the president is ‘angry’ at Netanyahu, the next day he is ‘very angry,’ the next day he is ‘very, very angry.’!! And the military aid continues!!”
