No, just Sicarious being Sicarious, stirring he anti-government pot.

No way with elections coming up. And highly unlikely in general.

No. What makes you think that war is even a possibility?

I really doubt Chavez or the US wants a fight. Its like when you and some other guy really hate each other, but you are forced to be something close to Civil due to extenuating circumstances. Chavez can't want the destruction and the almost sure loss of his life that would come from war with America, America needs his oil.

I think the US is far closer to pissing off Russia into war before Venezuela. It is unfortunate, but until the American sheeple wake up, get pissed off and take their country back, another war is coming...

ambassadors being expelled, russia sending warplanes and aircraft carriers to Ven, the U.S.'s general disposition towards war, alleged us coups on chavez

not saying it's going to happen, dount it actually, but I do think that it's a real possibility

a war with Ven would be a war with Rus

Yes, thanks to the glorious blunder that was the US bolstering the Georgian army, Russia is now ready to set up shop in Cuba again.

I believe that

1 - Chavez is anti-imperialist but not stupid. He'll talk a lot and he is making strong reforms inbound, but he wont stop selling oil, and he won't do anything to suggest a war.

2 - With the possible exception of the 'boot-lickers' at Colombia, there is not one country in South America that won't react to a military intervention in Venezuela. I don't know if Bush is stupid enough as to go in a war against all South America, that would be absolutely condemned by the UN and such. He'd completely isolate himself in the world, and with the troubles he is having back home, he wouldn't last for long, and, more importantly, he'd hurt McCain's chances even more than he has already.

And maybe it won't degenerate to full-blown war...but hey, who needs that when you can revisit the new Cold war and line your pockets with the money from a whole new slew of military contracts!

I think the US is about to become a major shitstorm.
for example, does anyone really doubt that within the next year or two there will be major military operations against Iran?

I think its terrifying, the level that the American populace can be emotionally manipulated.
I think that a major military operation from the US is both inevitable and nigh

Sicarius, the ambassador expelled this week is the ambassador in Bolivia, not Venezuela. And it was Morales, not Chavez, who denounced that said ambassador was plotting with the separatist governors to unstabilize his government.

"I think the US is about to become a major shitstorm." <- Agreed

I have no doubt that the US will invade Iran. Look for something to go BOOM, then watch as they point the finger of blame on Iran immediately. Hell, half of the US Armada is just sitting in the Persian Gulf...waiting for something.

Iran will be the first victim, maybe the IV fleet near Venezuela will attack later. By now, in South America the strategy is just to divide, not to invade (and it's working very good in Bolivia). But invasion is always an easy option for USA.
I will move myself to a country with no oil, nobody in the world is safe when there's a crisis in USA.

Chavez is a two term president heading for the exit door... He may need to provoke a crisis to call some sort of state of emergency and stay in power... doesn;t meananyone is going to bite that cherry

American populace? Noone wants war...just the insane Republicans following McCain and his war mongering..just like Bush did, and everyone hates Bush. I honestly dont believe that we will go to war against anyone else. People supported the Iraqi war because of 9/11 when there was a slight possibility of relevance to the disaster, and when it became apparent that the war was just an oil scheme and such most people stopped supporting the war, so unless Iran or Venezuela attack the US i dont think we will go in.

Chavez is a clown putting on a show to get popularity from his people while he slowly tries to get more and more power. His recent attempt to subdue democracy as part of his "socialist revolution" luckily didn't make it through, and hopefully he's on his way out

If Bush is so hated how come he polled more voted than any Presidential candidate in US electoral history in 2004?

Seriously, please can someone enlighten us?

Because Americans are stupid when it's election time, the rest of the time we just bitch and moan about who is in office

no, at this point, a new war would be political suicide for any candidate (and maybe even physical suicide, considering 1/2 the world would want to kill him). Let's take a new poll, what % of america thinks starting another war is a good idea. I'd bet you won't even find 5%.

"I'd bet you won't even find 5%"

I'd bet you'd be surprised. :)

"Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.
Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.
Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

-Nuremberg Diary (1947)
These statements were recorded in Gustave Gilbert's transcriptions of conversations with many of the Nazi leaders during the War Crimes Trials at Nuremberg, and later published in Gilbert's Nuremberg Diary(1947).

"If Bush is so hated how come he polled more voted than any Presidential candidate in US electoral history in 2004?

Seriously, please can someone enlighten us?"

Do you know who had the second most votes in US history? John Kerry. That's because more people period voted in the 2004 election than in any other election.

I thought that, not so very long ago, the RNC was the centre of the universe and that there we could see the beginnings of greatest threat facing the universe since the Big Bang got us started...

Now it is the US approach to Chavez,

or is it the US policy for Iran...?

The little matter of the Russian activities in Georgia seem to have been left off the list even though that is a conflict that has already kicked off.

I would humbly ask Mr Sicarius whether he has an agenda?

I think that Venezuela is just a thorn in the side of the US. Although the relations have been strained the US doesn't care enough about it - especially after Iraq.

I don't think that people would go for an invasion of Iran though. Iraq was PR hell, its more or less been pegged as the centre of the world's problems. Iran is simply too similar to Iraq, it borders it to the east and the name is incredibly similar. Although an invasion of Iran may win some public support it would cause a lot more problems for the ruling government than it would be worth.

I think you should definitely be looking at Burma though. Certain people I know attached to the US embassy and US-Asian aid have been mentioning how many more 'spooks' have been arriving. I'm of course not directly attached to US interests so its more or less hearsay, but I do trust the people who've indicated so.

I personally support the current US involvement under the table. Due to the paranoia (sometimes justified) and the related embargos Burma has gone from having one of Asia's most promising futures to one of the world's poorest countries. The country also isn't as divided as Iraq and its neighbours Thailand/India both have strong ties with the US - it even already has an elected leader who was directly denied power.

Kestas: Chavez do not need popularity, he is very popular, and poor people of Venezuela loves him. When USA develope a plot against him (putting Chavez in jail) , poor people of Venezuela went to the streets, putting Chavez again in the government in just two days.
You will never get good information just reading the news, the CNN and others agencies are not giving information about Venezuela, they are giving just propaganda to discredit Chavez. As well as the massive destruction weapons in Irak, the media is giving lies to the people about Venezuela. ¿Why? Because if you dont let american oil companies to do what they want, you are an enemy and they use all the power of the masive media against you. This will prepare terrain to a further invasion. But you can be shure that Chavez is not a clown, Venezuela is a country with a lot of poor people and this is a government who tries to help them.
You can get unofficial information in the australian documental called "The War on Democracy". You will see how south american people have been suffering the USA foreing policy.

I reccomend the documentary "The revolution will not be televised" originally "La Revolución no será televisada" for some insight on the coup against Chavez.

Because elections are the only time when conservatives bother to put out their message.

But yea, the USA is not going to bomb Iran(we don't have "half of our Armada" in the Persian Gulf, either). We aren't going to bomb Venezuela. We don't want war with Russia, or with Pakistan. This is all paranoia.