Meanwhile, south of the border

Political dissension in the nation’s capital reached a fever pitch last week following President George W. Bush’s address to the nation on changing the course of military action in Iraq.
Polls the following morning showed only 26 percent of Americans supported the President. Glenn Beck on Channel HHN reported that the actual poll had been taken three days before the President’s speech. So much for the honesty of present day polls and the dominant media.
The Democrat leadership, who numerous times previously had criticized the President for not having enough troops on the ground, reversed course to attack him for his proposal to promote a troop surge in Iraq by the addition of some 20,000 new soldiers.
Meanwhile, Sen. Carl Milton Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee; Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., were busy rounding up votes in the U.S. Senate for the passage of a non-binding resolution to rein in President Bush.
The purpose of the resolution is to demonstrate that the President does not have the support of the Congress, implying the U.S. population as well, to continue the war in Iraq.
At the same time, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Neb., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sent a letter to President Bush, urging him to begin pulling troops out of Iraq in four to six months.
There is little doubt that our enemies around the world are delighted. The message certainly has insurgents in Iraq thinking “the more American soldiers we kill in the shortest time is the answer to America’s retreat from the Middle East.” Add to this the comment of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch: “Liberals have no stomach for a fight.”
No thought has been given to the effect the wrangling of political zealots on the far left may have on the morale of American’s brave and loyal troops in the field. With the exception of a half-hearted “I support the troops,” the sacrifices of U.S. soldiers and Marines are ignored.
There is little doubt that the Democrat majority in Congress is working in the direction of creating a Constitutional crisis between the Executive and Legislative branches of the U.S. government hoping to find an opening where impeachment charges can be brought against President George Bush.
All the bitter political infighting has distracted America’s attention from a rapidly growing threat to the United States closer to home.
Alliances of America’s enemies are being formed right here in the Western Hemisphere. The alliances are forming across an area from Cuba and Nicaraugua to the tip of South America in Chile. Spearheading the anti-American movement are Iran and Venezuela.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has just completed a five-day state visit to three Latin American nations, cementing alliances, some of which began several years ago.
Reuters reports: New Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega (America’s old nemesis from Iran-Contra Sandinista days in the 1980s) said on Jan. 11 he will upgrade diplomatic relations with Cuba, stepping farther into Latin America’s leftist camp. Ortega will receive economic aid from President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and is friendly with Bolivian President Ero Morales, another leftist who has drawn concern from Washington.
The Associated Press reported on Jan. 14 that Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, a leftist economist and friend of Chavez, promises swift radical political changes. Correa has called President Bush “tremendously dimwitted.”
The Associated Press continued: Correa joins a string of recently elected leftist presidents in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Nicaragua, many of whom plan to attend his inauguration. Some, like Correa, admire Venezuela’s firebrand Hugo Chavez; others have distanced themselves from him. He intends to increase state control over his country’s economy.
The Associated Press’ Traci Carl wrote in The Washington Post, Jan. 14, “Venezuela and Iran had previously announced plans for a joint $2 billion fund to finance investments in their own countries, but Chavez and Ahmadinejad said … this money will also be used for international projects. ‘It will permit us to underpin investments … above all in those countries whose governments are making efforts to liberate themselves from the (U.S.) imperialist yoke,’ Chavez said.”
There you have it.
While America has occupied itself in destructive political bickering, nearly an entire continent has slipped from under the influence of the United States and into the hands of our enemies.
The 2,000-mile virtually uncontrolled border with Mexico now presents an even greater threat to the United States.

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Mr. Hostetter welcomes comments at admin@americanfarm.com.