Have You Ever Heard of the BRICS Alliance? Well You Should Pay Attention Now.
BRIC stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The purpose of this unfortunate alliance is to “muscle the United States out of global markets where possible.
An even more unfortunate turn of events is the entrance of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela into this group. Hugo is determined to pick up where Castro left off to thwart and check the U.S. at any cost. Turning Venezuela into his personal fiefdom, Chavez has the power at the pump to use as part of his arsenal.
At FrontPage, here is an overview of his ‘holistic aims’:
According to Gancarsky, Venezuela is on the move military, economically, and diplomatically because it ‘senses a changing of the guard globally. Chavez sees an opportunity to strengthen his position at the expense of Washington.” He is determined not to become another Castro, blocked and hemmed in by the U.S.
And to add to this mix, Russia, in a ‘new strategic alliance with China,’ is eager to form an alliance in BRICS.
But Americans shouldn’t fret. According to the writer at the India Times,
Such an alliance will give opportunities for terrorists and saboteurs to operate off the coast and to gain entrance to the United States. China has already created an economic alliance with many Western Hemisphere countries, including The Bahamas in which it has created the ‘world largest port’. China already has control of the Panama Canal and has been successful creating ‘trade alliances’ with various Caribbean nations.
Brazil’s Lula is no fan of the United States or Bush. and it is no surprise that Russia might want to check U.S. power in order to recreate a Soviet-style empire and tensions between the U.S. and Brazil will only rise now that Brazil and Venezuela have created a strategic alliance complete with an arms deal.
As stated in the India Times, Russia, Venezuela, and Iran are linked. Chavez is interested in using this as ‘an usurping of power and as direct and deliberate sabotage of U.S. interests.’
Russia has plans for Venezuelan oil. “LUKoil which produces a fifth of Russia’s oil, plans to secure about 3,000 U.S. retail outlets, up from more than 2,000 units now…It plans to raise oil shipments from Russia and Venezuela to the United States to produce fuel locally.” The next time you fill up it might be from “Russia With Love”! Not really. It’s for hard cash and influence within the United States.
Although the U.S. and India have common causeagainst terrorism, it’s participation as a member of BRICS makes India no friend of the United States. The relationship between the U.S. and India has been severely strained due to the concern of the U.S. over India’s development of nuclear weapons and tensions arising from problems with Pakistan over Kashmir, a province that both countries claim.
South Africa’s participation is harder to explain. Tension between the United States put South Africa on a list of violators of human rights. South Africa now sees a chance to ally itself with a group that perhaps plans to thwart, check, and blacklist the United States at some point in time.
The United States surrounded by hostility. The resurgence of Islamic extremism, the re-emergence of Russia under Putin, a resentful Europe, Mexico that is exporting its inconvenient and unmanageable population to the United States, and now the BRICS alliance. Why aren’t we paying attention and why is the U.S. allowing countries to violate more than the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine that warns away other powers from interfering in the Western Hemisphere? Could it be that George W. Bush,a fan of NAFTA, is setting a dangerous precedent with his ideas on free trade and free markets?
An even more unfortunate turn of events is the entrance of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela into this group. Hugo is determined to pick up where Castro left off to thwart and check the U.S. at any cost. Turning Venezuela into his personal fiefdom, Chavez has the power at the pump to use as part of his arsenal.
At FrontPage, here is an overview of his ‘holistic aims’:
• Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, came together on February 14 to green light a series of agreements to develop joint projects in areas such as energy, petrochemicals, gas and mining, double taxation, agriculture, agrarian reform, fishing, science-and-technology, and communications. Furthermore, says China’s sympathetic Xinhua newspaper, the joint projects cover integration of two petrochemical companies and, tellingly, a state-run television station, Telesur, for broadcasting information mutually vetted by the two governments.
• U.S. State Department spokesman Lou Fintor recently voiced American concerns that 100,000 Kalashnikov guns and a number of helicopters due to be sold by Russia to Venezuela could find their way to neo-Marxist guerrillas in Colombia and elsewhere. Our friends in Russia, according to the Interfax news service, see U.S. concerns as unfounded, adding, “U.S. protests should be viewed as nothing but a dishonest form of competition and an attempt to squeeze Russian producers from the arms market.” Apart from this purchase, there are reports that Venezuela is also considering Russian MiG-29 fighters as possible replacements for its F-16s. These arms dealings suggest that Russia sees an opening in South America and that Venezuela is not coy about advertising it. This has been noticed by regional daily papers throughout the U.S., which are echoing this writer’s call to uphold the sanctity of the Monroe Doctrine and check this rogue state before things get worse. For his part, a defiant Chavez has echoed Moscow’s socialist line: he has claimed that the U.S. wouldn‘t be bothered by similar arms purchases from U.S. vendors, and that the U.S. is more concerned with market share than national security.
• With an expanding economy and an increased international presence, it is no wonder that the strength of the Venezuelan state is increasing. Bloomberg reports Venezuelan government spending soared by almost half in December from a year ago, as record oil prices triggered a surge in revenue. Spending for the year rose 61 percent from 2003, indicating that December is no aberration. The analysts cited in the Bloomberg piece warn that Venezuela is in clover for the foreseeable future: their read is that “anything over $35 is plenty for Venezuela” and that conditions will be favorable for Chavez’s fiefdom through 2006.
• Reports are that government officials are floating the idea of Venezuela selling its Citgo oil chain. It seems that President Chavez has grown weary of “subsidizing” America’s oil needs. The only thing holding up the sale, apparently, is logistical inconvenience. According to government officials, it will take two years to get the sale on track. Meanwhile, Russia’s Lukoil behemoth is making noise about entering the U.S. gas station sector by buying an existing property. Lukoil buying Citgo looks inevitable.
According to Gancarsky, Venezuela is on the move military, economically, and diplomatically because it ‘senses a changing of the guard globally. Chavez sees an opportunity to strengthen his position at the expense of Washington.” He is determined not to become another Castro, blocked and hemmed in by the U.S.
And to add to this mix, Russia, in a ‘new strategic alliance with China,’ is eager to form an alliance in BRICS.
But Americans shouldn’t fret. According to the writer at the India Times,
The cold war will not be similar to one between America and old Soviet Union…There will be cordial relations between China and America, India and America as well as Russia and America. The covert war will be in the area of trade, commerce and finance. That is where India and China stand out. Russian oil is a great factor. Russia-Venesuela [sic.]-Iran forms CRICS main oil and Gas resource.
Russia, Venezuela, and Iran – linked? That certainly would put the Bolivarian revolution into its proper context – as an usurping of power and as direct and deliberate sabotage of U.S. interests.
Such an alliance will give opportunities for terrorists and saboteurs to operate off the coast and to gain entrance to the United States. China has already created an economic alliance with many Western Hemisphere countries, including The Bahamas in which it has created the ‘world largest port’. China already has control of the Panama Canal and has been successful creating ‘trade alliances’ with various Caribbean nations.
Brazil’s Lula is no fan of the United States or Bush. and it is no surprise that Russia might want to check U.S. power in order to recreate a Soviet-style empire and tensions between the U.S. and Brazil will only rise now that Brazil and Venezuela have created a strategic alliance complete with an arms deal.
As stated in the India Times, Russia, Venezuela, and Iran are linked. Chavez is interested in using this as ‘an usurping of power and as direct and deliberate sabotage of U.S. interests.’
Russia has plans for Venezuelan oil. “LUKoil which produces a fifth of Russia’s oil, plans to secure about 3,000 U.S. retail outlets, up from more than 2,000 units now…It plans to raise oil shipments from Russia and Venezuela to the United States to produce fuel locally.” The next time you fill up it might be from “Russia With Love”! Not really. It’s for hard cash and influence within the United States.
Although the U.S. and India have common causeagainst terrorism, it’s participation as a member of BRICS makes India no friend of the United States. The relationship between the U.S. and India has been severely strained due to the concern of the U.S. over India’s development of nuclear weapons and tensions arising from problems with Pakistan over Kashmir, a province that both countries claim.
South Africa’s participation is harder to explain. Tension between the United States put South Africa on a list of violators of human rights. South Africa now sees a chance to ally itself with a group that perhaps plans to thwart, check, and blacklist the United States at some point in time.
The United States surrounded by hostility. The resurgence of Islamic extremism, the re-emergence of Russia under Putin, a resentful Europe, Mexico that is exporting its inconvenient and unmanageable population to the United States, and now the BRICS alliance. Why aren’t we paying attention and why is the U.S. allowing countries to violate more than the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine that warns away other powers from interfering in the Western Hemisphere? Could it be that George W. Bush,a fan of NAFTA, is setting a dangerous precedent with his ideas on free trade and free markets?
posted by Eleanor © @ 2/21/2005 08:15:00 AM
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