Sticking together in stupidity - and it's our fault
The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas - a trade bloc invented by Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro - just expanded to include Peru. Its ridiculous name, the product of Chávez's nostalgia for, or at least political idolatry of, Simón Bolívar, sound vaguely Orwellian, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise, considering the views of the leaders involved.
The sad thing is, the US is helping such travesties of foreign policy by sticking its nose in Latin America far too often. Our frequently dysfunctional neighbors to the south were the earliest targets of TR's big stick, and much as the Carter Doctrine might lead you to disagree, we've still got plenty of government involvement down there. We try to pay countries to stop drug production, we argue with Mexico about immigration, and we boycott Cuba just because. (We don't boycott them because they're communist - if that was the real reason, we'd boycott Venezuela too. But they have oil.) The campaign promises of the recent neocommmunists to reach power were eliminating US influence and screwing over the rich.
We're managing to hurt ourselves (American companies now cannot compete in these countries) and Latin Americans - life under communism feels great until it lasts ten years - by interfering in their affairs. For those of you who haven't made the connection yet, I'll write out the obvious analogy like they were on those stupid middle-school worksheets:
The sad thing is, the US is helping such travesties of foreign policy by sticking its nose in Latin America far too often. Our frequently dysfunctional neighbors to the south were the earliest targets of TR's big stick, and much as the Carter Doctrine might lead you to disagree, we've still got plenty of government involvement down there. We try to pay countries to stop drug production, we argue with Mexico about immigration, and we boycott Cuba just because. (We don't boycott them because they're communist - if that was the real reason, we'd boycott Venezuela too. But they have oil.) The campaign promises of the recent neocommmunists to reach power were eliminating US influence and screwing over the rich.
We're managing to hurt ourselves (American companies now cannot compete in these countries) and Latin Americans - life under communism feels great until it lasts ten years - by interfering in their affairs. For those of you who haven't made the connection yet, I'll write out the obvious analogy like they were on those stupid middle-school worksheets:
War on Drugs:Latin America::War on Terror:Middle East
Let's save ourselves a lot of money, time, and manpower and end both.
Let's save ourselves a lot of money, time, and manpower and end both.
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