Obama extends hands to Chavez

[Will E Worm]

Obama extends hands to Chavez, Ortega at summit.

President Barack Obama offered a spirit of cooperation to America's hemispheric neighbors at a summit Saturday, listening to complaints about past U.S. meddling and even reaching out to Venezuela's leftist leader.

While he worked to ease friction between the U.S. and their countries, Obama cautioned leaders at the Summit of the Americas to resist a temptation to blame all their problems on their behemoth neighbor to the north.

"I have a lot to learn and I very much look forward to listening and figuring out how we can work together more effectively," Obama said.

Obama said he was ready to accept Cuban President Raul Castro's proposal of talks on issues once off-limits for Cuba, including political prisoners held by the communist government.

Article

Birds of a feather...

Chavez did say that the American government was responsible for 9/11.
So, hmmm

 

[bustybbwlover]

heh lots of people say our government is responsible for 9/11 but the US policy in the past hasn't done anything good in venezuela or cuba so talking to them can't hurt anymore

 

[hedonis]

heh lots of people say our government is responsible for 9/11 but the US policy in the past hasn't done anything good in venezuela or cuba so talking to them can't hurt anymore

Actually, "US Policy" buys a lot of oil from Venezuela, so, yeah it has done something good for Venezuela.

And talking to a guy who has seized control of all media and control in his country, bashes our country and government every chance he gets, has been juicing his military up like crazy, and has started making his critics disappear is bad juju.

Very way bad juju.

Hugo Chavez (and listen carefully) is dictator. Being friendly with him is not a good idea.

H

 

[bustybbwlover]

Actually, "US Policy" buys a lot of oil from Venezuela, so, yeah it has done something good for Venezuela.
And talking to a guy who has seized control of all media and control in his country, bashes our country and government every chance he gets, has been juicing his military up like crazy, and has started making his critics disappear is bad juju.
Very way bad juju.
Hugo Chavez (and listen carefully) is dictator. Being friendly with him is not a good idea.
H

we love dictators, as long as they're on our side, and that is true we do import a lot of oil from venezuela, i believe they are fourth on our who we import oil from list. we talk to china and yet they've been acting like this for decades. of course hugo is a dictator i don't think that was ever in dispute. as far as i know ignoring dictators won't help the people subservient to them. for example we ignored fidel castro from 1962 on and a lot of good that did the cubans.

 

[meesterperfect]

i posted this in the obama is a fuck up thread earlier
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/...b_obama_summit

hmm,
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – President Barack Obama offered a spirit of cooperation to America's hemispheric neighbors at a summit Saturday, listening to complaints about past U.S. meddling and even reaching out to Venezuela's leftist leader.

i'll admit, i'm not sure if its good or bad.
maybe he's pulling a Godfather "keep your friends close but your enemys closer" thing.
or maybe he's kissing ass and showing weakness.
Chavez does hate the US and is in bed with the colombian drug traffickers. so i don't know what obamas deal is here.


I also fear, and this could be BIG, is that knowing obama is his buddy, he may start fucking with colombia, militarily, the only US allie in south america and a free country.

 

[Hot Mega]

i'll admit, i'm not sure if its good or bad.
maybe he's pulling a Godfather "keep your friends close but your enemys closer" thing.
or maybe he's kissing ass and showing weakness.
Chavez does hate the US and is in bed with the colombian drug traffickers. so i don't know what obamas deal is here.


I also fear, and this could be BIG, is that knowing obama is his buddy, he may start fucking with colombia, militarily, the only US allie in south america and a free country.

Chavez doesn't "hate" the US!! He donated heating oil at a 40 pct. discount to US non profits for the US poor and offered assistance when refineries went off-line due to Katrina for crissakes!. So how does he "hate" the US???

He disliked Bush because Bush sought to destabilized his regime and meddle in the affairs of his country. Wouldn't you dislike a someone who you thought was doing that?? Bush is not the US nor the leader of the "American race", he was a US president who had his set of policies which are subject to agreement or disagreement. Much like we're not enemies of peoples of other countries but of the policies of their leaders.

You lead by commendable actions and building consensus along common values, not by bullying. Civilized people don't accomplish much success by bullying, criminals do.

For all of the bullying we attempted with Cuba over nearly 50 years, where has that gotten us but isolation of people from their families and skyrocketing the price of good cigars??

We need to understand the simple psychology of leadership. No head of state will cower from bullying tactics. If they do, how would they ever maintain credibility among their countrymen if they are seen as being pushed around by the demands of other countries. They would rather suffer, have their people suffer or like in Saddam's case, die first. The end result is you don't make any progress.

And it's not in our interests to take on the responsibility of rebuilding the countries of every leader we disagree with at taxpayer expense.

So you encourage those with whom you have disagreement with incentives but at the end of the day you realize that a country has the right to self determination.

BTW, why would Chavez respond to positive gestures from the US by attacking one of our allies???

 

[jasonk282]

Socialist of a feather flock together.