Charm/Offensive

Bush bans arms sales to Venezuela. Uh hmm.

How does it feel to be threatened for a change?

They mentioned reason for doing so because Chavez has been supporting terrorist activities by allying his country with Cuba, Iran, etc but as usual, failed to mention the oil that they rely on Venezuela, 1.5 million barrels a day to be exact.

Nit-picking comes to mind.

And it's not suprising to see Chavez reacting angrily to this sanction.

"Bush is the world's biggest terrorist!" he remarked citing bombing whole towns, civilian populations, killing innocent people and women and children in Iraq as some examples.

At home, Bush's government have fire on their asses right now from the latest blunder they manage to get themselves into - phone tapping. It puts American liberties at risk.

It is time to call the bluff of the Bush administration and Republican water-carriers. The US is not a nation at war. The so-called war on terror has never been a war. It is a threat from a wide variety of autonomous groups that hate the US. But it is not a war, and they cannot justify abandoning the existing laws to fight it.

If they need domestic surveillance, then a new law needs to be created to justify it. Unauthorized gathering of classified information also helps terrorists and their enemies.

Away from home, it's been discovered that the US had been sending possibly mentally unfit soldiers to Iraq while being kept on potent antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, with little or no counseling or medical monitoring..

The suicide rate among troops serving in Iraq reached an all-time high in 2005 when 22 soldiers killed themselves - accounting for nearly one in five of all army non-combat deaths.

The investigation found that at least 11 service members who committed suicide in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 were kept on duty despite exhibiting signs of significant psychological distress.

In at least seven of the cases, superiors were aware of the problems.

Also, at least three soldiers who have killed themselves since the war began were deployed despite serious mental conditions, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

It's no wonder Chavez left his unofficial visit to London with his head held high recently. His charm offensive seems to work better than Bush's "if you can't control 'em, bomb 'em" attitude.

Before he left, he quoted Rousseau, "Between the poor and the rich, liberty is oppressive. Only law can liberate".