While, in defense of their sovereignty, their constitution and beloved President, hundred of thousands of Venezuelans were marching in Caracas last Sunday, January 23, VHeadline commentarist Carlos Herrera wrote:

"Make no mistake, the hundred of thousands of Venezuelans from all corners of the country, who support the Bolivarian Revolution, their President Hugo Chavez ... and who are in the streets of Caracas today in a gigantic march to defend the national sovereignty ... will not hesitate to take up arms and join with our armed forces to defend themselves against ANY imperialist pretensions. Whether it be to overthrow the democratically-elected government or to annex our oil and gas reserves."*

On the same day, in an article, "Venezuela: Be prepared for the next violent attack on the Bolivarian Revolution", I warned: "Now that Venezuela has signed bilateral oil agreements with Iran, Russia and China, the Bush administration, the bully Bush sees red ... takes these sovereign acts as a declaration of war ... of open "terrorism," as being sufficient pretext evidence to include Venezuela in the coming holocaust of the "axis of evil." The only thing that remains for full military intervention, is that Venezuela, like others, as ultima ratio, may be forced to switch over to the Petro-Euro, or to create an own Latin American currency."

* Ten days before, I remarked that should this happen, if the Central Banks of OPEC and other countries would decide to move their reserves to the eurozone, to improve their profits and interest rates, and, logically, when the run on the $US begins to generalize itself, then ...

"All this would be tantamount to a direct physical attack, the military results would be devastating. The American economy would be in shambles, and the innocent, ordinary American people would experience a domestic Fallujah. Of course, in such a scenario, for the time being, Iran or Venezuela would get a new lease of life. It would be suicide for North America to invade them."

Now ... already in November 2004 ... Alan Greenspan has warned that there was a limit to which foreign governments can finance the US current account deficit, that will increase to $694bn this year, practically to the same amount that the USA annually needs for its military budget. This also means that foreign countries, especially the oil-producing ones, indirectly finance Bush's wars.

Now, surprise, surprise, about what is the Financial Times informing us today (Jan. 24)?

"Central banks are shifting reserves away from the US and towards the eurozone in a move that looks set to deepen the Bush administration's difficulties in financing its ballooning current account deficit."

And, what happened already over the last two years?

"... 70% of central bank reserve managers said they had increased their exposure to the euro over the past two years."

And, economically, how dependent is fascist Big Brother, the great, developed, metropolitan USA?

"...the US has become increasingly dependent on official flows of funds to finance its current account deficit, estimated at $650bn in 2004."

We live in a capitalist world of investments, of making profits, and no billionaire will invest or keep his assets in a bankrupt currency that is going fast down the drain, not even God trusts in the US dollar anymore.

"For these managers, dollar assets have become less attractive because the fall in the dollar since 2002 has reduced the yield they received and, in some cases, has led to negative real returns."

This economic fiasco of the USA, which is as criminal as its political and military acts in Iraq and elsewhere, is a scientific indicator of the fast deteriorating global situation, of the world market, of globalization.

In this imperialist chaos and corporate anarchy anything could happen. Like in the case of the ex-Soviet Union, one morning we will wake up, not surprised anymore by home-made tumbling Twin Towers, Arab Pearls or Harbors of "terrorists", but by the fact that the USA will be no more, will be fading into the oblivion of the Bermuda Triangle of the world market.

The real danger is, what President Hugo Chavez Frias has warned about a few days ago, that before ... unless we act rapidly ... Big Brother will fetch us "one by one," and dump us into his own infernal fascist furnace.

Now, concerning rapid action, returning to what Carlos Herrera said: "...the hundred of thousands of Venezuelans from all corners of the country ... will not hesitate to take up arms and join with our armed forces to defend themselves against ANY imperialist pretensions."

One thing is to be peace-loving, to have well-trained, loyal armed forces, and also a popular reserve army, but another thing is to have an armed sovereign, armed citizen power, that Cuba enjoys for 45 years already, and that stopped a Yankee invasion already.

With plastic knives and forks in the virtual reality of Yankee Land, one could kidnap air planes ... but in Venezuela you cannot carry on a long, protracted armed struggle against a Colombo-American military invasion only with popular hand-made hand-guns and rusted, blunt machetes.

Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the armed revolutions in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, especially in Vietnam, at Dien Bien Phu, have verified that to depend only on conventional warfare against an imperialist monster armed to the teeth, is practically suicidal. The sovereign by right of its own constitution has the right to be armed to defend himself.

Leaving past miracles and marvels aside, in the coming fierce struggle against US military invasion, in real, true, revolutionary battle, to be victorious, our popular army urgently will need its complementary part, the armed sovereign, armed citizen power.

This is not an ad hoc matter, it is a well organized strategic bulwark.

Armed self-defense is the only hope that we still have against a "Colombia Plan," that at any moment is hell bent on grabbing the water, gas and oil reserves of Venezuela.

The USA urgently needs this to survive a few years longer, economically to confront its European and Asian competitors.

As we have seen before, it is a matter of life and death.

* Not many friends will come to our aid ... as Shakespeare said.

Venezuelans, Latin Americans, we will have "to take up arms against a sea of troubles" that will not come "in single file but in battalions" very soon.
***

fran...@cantv.net
Franz John Tennyson Lee, Ph. D (University of Frankfurt), Author, Professor Titular & Chairholder of Philosophy and Political Science, University of The Andes, Merida (Venezuela) -- http://www.franzjutta.com ; http://www.franz-lee.org ; http://www.geocities.com/juttafranz/publications00001.html

More VHeadline.com commentaries by Franz J.T. Lee:
http://www.vheadline.com/lee

*See the original links at:
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=24592