Chavez Pushing the Envelope

Apparently Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, in addition to previous arms buys, is attempting to procure nine submarines from Russia. That would make the socialist regime in Caracas one of only three nations in the Caribbean basin with such ships, with the US clearly having predominance. It's also typical caudillo/socialist nonsense: no conventional weapon employed by the Venezuelans is a serious threat to US forces (tends to happen when ideological purity is the foremost criterion for advancement) but just possessing them makes them more macho.

I wonder if in retrospect Bush will be chastised for failing to put a stop to the reinfection of South America with socialism. Democracy has a less than sterling success record in the region, making me wonder if the old policies (he may be an SOB but at least he's our SOB) still aren't better suited. It also defies reason why we're not making a bigger scene over the stream of arms from Russia and China to Venezuela (somehow I think Monroe must be spinning in his grave for this violation of his doctrine).