Post by QuietGirl on Feb 23, 2008 17:52:51 GMT
Source: Arizona Central
Chris Hawley
Mexico City Bureau
Feb. 22, 2008 12:00 AM
MEXICO CITY - So, who is Washington's bogeyman now?
With Fidel Castro stepping aside, the role of senior U.S. antagonist is wide open, with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korea's Kim Jong-il, among others, all promising to be thorns in the United States' side for years to come.
The seriousness of the threat posed by such leaders has diminished since Castro brought the world to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
Since the end of the Cold War, anti-U.S. diatribes, such as Chavez's famous rant in which he called President Bush "the devil," are more likely to end up as viral YouTube clips than they are to spark a major global confrontation.
But today's generation of rogue leaders is still capable of inflicting meaningful economic and military pain upon Washington and its allies.
The leaders also seem to realize what Castro learned long ago: that bashing Uncle Sam can be a sure ticket to greater influence abroad, as well as longevity at home.
"We had massive sanctions on this little nearby island for 40 or 50 years. And now (Castro) is leaving the scene on his own terms," said Philip Gordon, a foreign-policy expert at the Brookings Institution, a think tank.
"It underscores how hard it is to get rid of these people."
Castro, who announced this week that he was giving up Cuba's presidency after 49 years in power, sent troops to prop up Marxist regimes in Africa, orchestrated a U.S. immigration crisis and triggered the U.S. invasion of Grenada.
Assassination attempts, an economic embargo and even a U.S.-backed invasion attempt failed to bring him down.
Although communist Cuba was once seen as a possible launching pad for a Soviet invasion of the United States, today's rogues pose more indirect dangers.
Venezuela is the United States' fourth-biggest supplier of oil, while Iran and North Korea could threaten U.S. allies like Israel and Japan. But without a superpower like the Soviet Union backing them, their influence is limited.
"I don't think you could compare Chavez or even Ahmadinejad to Castro at the height of American fear about Castro," said Peter Beinart, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Besides, some pariahs don't always stay that way. Moammar Gadhafi of Libya, a bitter foe of the United States in the 1980s, renounced terrorism and allowed international inspectors to dismantle Libya's chemical- and nuclear-weapons programs following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Since becoming president of Nicaragua again in 2007, leftist Daniel Ortega has toned down his anti-American talk.
He now wears dress shirts instead of the revolutionary fatigues he wore in the 1980s.
Back then, the United States feared that Nicaragua could spawn communist regimes across Latin America, and it secretly funded the contra guerrillas in an attempt to overthrow Ortega's Sandinista government.
Castro's apparent successor in Cuba, Raul Castro, lacks his brother's charisma and bluster, said Uva de Aragón, associate director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.
That leaves a few other contenders for the title of top rogue:
• Hugo Chavez: Calling George W. Bush "the devil" on the floor of the United Nations and railing against the American "empire" in nearly every speech, the Venezuelan president has copied much of Castro's playbook.
Chavez has declared his country a "Bolivarian Socialist" state, nationalized foreign companies and strengthened state control over the important oil industry.
But things have not gone smoothly for Chavez lately. Constitutional changes that would have allowed him to rule indefinitely were rejected by voters in November.
Inflation and food shortages have created discontent.
When the king of Spain, a man widely respected for overseeing that country's transition to democracy, told Chavez to "shut up" during a summit in November, many Latin Americans cheered, Aragón said.
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Blasting the United States as a "world oppressor," the Iranian president has become the Bush administration's loudest foe in the Middle East.
The United States regards Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism for its support of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
It also has accused Iran of wanting to build nuclear weapons, even though a U.S. intelligence report in December said that Iran had stopped its atomic-weapons program in 2003. Iran says it is enriching uranium as fuel for nuclear-power plants.
Ahmadinejad's verbal attacks on Israel, Iran's influence as an oil exporter and the continuing doubt over Iran's nuclear ambitions make him a destabilizing force in the Middle East, Beinart said.
• Kim Jong-il: Railing against the United States' "adventurous strategy for world domination" and its "ideological and cultural poisoning" of other countries, North Korea's government churns out a daily stream of anti-American diatribes while praising its dictator's "undying feats."
But the real danger is Kim's nuclear and missile arsenal, Beinart said.
The country tested its first nuclear weapon in 2006 and is working on a Taepodong-2 missile that could hit parts of the United States.
The country is believed to have sold missile technology to Iran, Syria, Pakistan and Yemen.
• Robert Mugabe: Accusing the United States of sponsoring opposition "stooges," Mugabe's Zimbabwean government has become an international pariah by seizing farms owned by White citizens and cracking down on government opponents.
On Feb. 14, President Bush called President Mugabe "a discredited dictator" who has brought a "nightmare" to Zimbabwe.
The United States has imposed travel and economic sanctions on Mugabe and members of his government.
Chris Hawley
Mexico City Bureau
Feb. 22, 2008 12:00 AM
MEXICO CITY - So, who is Washington's bogeyman now?
With Fidel Castro stepping aside, the role of senior U.S. antagonist is wide open, with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korea's Kim Jong-il, among others, all promising to be thorns in the United States' side for years to come.
The seriousness of the threat posed by such leaders has diminished since Castro brought the world to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
Since the end of the Cold War, anti-U.S. diatribes, such as Chavez's famous rant in which he called President Bush "the devil," are more likely to end up as viral YouTube clips than they are to spark a major global confrontation.
But today's generation of rogue leaders is still capable of inflicting meaningful economic and military pain upon Washington and its allies.
The leaders also seem to realize what Castro learned long ago: that bashing Uncle Sam can be a sure ticket to greater influence abroad, as well as longevity at home.
"We had massive sanctions on this little nearby island for 40 or 50 years. And now (Castro) is leaving the scene on his own terms," said Philip Gordon, a foreign-policy expert at the Brookings Institution, a think tank.
"It underscores how hard it is to get rid of these people."
Castro, who announced this week that he was giving up Cuba's presidency after 49 years in power, sent troops to prop up Marxist regimes in Africa, orchestrated a U.S. immigration crisis and triggered the U.S. invasion of Grenada.
Assassination attempts, an economic embargo and even a U.S.-backed invasion attempt failed to bring him down.
Although communist Cuba was once seen as a possible launching pad for a Soviet invasion of the United States, today's rogues pose more indirect dangers.
Venezuela is the United States' fourth-biggest supplier of oil, while Iran and North Korea could threaten U.S. allies like Israel and Japan. But without a superpower like the Soviet Union backing them, their influence is limited.
"I don't think you could compare Chavez or even Ahmadinejad to Castro at the height of American fear about Castro," said Peter Beinart, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Besides, some pariahs don't always stay that way. Moammar Gadhafi of Libya, a bitter foe of the United States in the 1980s, renounced terrorism and allowed international inspectors to dismantle Libya's chemical- and nuclear-weapons programs following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Since becoming president of Nicaragua again in 2007, leftist Daniel Ortega has toned down his anti-American talk.
He now wears dress shirts instead of the revolutionary fatigues he wore in the 1980s.
Back then, the United States feared that Nicaragua could spawn communist regimes across Latin America, and it secretly funded the contra guerrillas in an attempt to overthrow Ortega's Sandinista government.
Castro's apparent successor in Cuba, Raul Castro, lacks his brother's charisma and bluster, said Uva de Aragón, associate director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.
That leaves a few other contenders for the title of top rogue:
• Hugo Chavez: Calling George W. Bush "the devil" on the floor of the United Nations and railing against the American "empire" in nearly every speech, the Venezuelan president has copied much of Castro's playbook.
Chavez has declared his country a "Bolivarian Socialist" state, nationalized foreign companies and strengthened state control over the important oil industry.
But things have not gone smoothly for Chavez lately. Constitutional changes that would have allowed him to rule indefinitely were rejected by voters in November.
Inflation and food shortages have created discontent.
When the king of Spain, a man widely respected for overseeing that country's transition to democracy, told Chavez to "shut up" during a summit in November, many Latin Americans cheered, Aragón said.
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Blasting the United States as a "world oppressor," the Iranian president has become the Bush administration's loudest foe in the Middle East.
The United States regards Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism for its support of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
It also has accused Iran of wanting to build nuclear weapons, even though a U.S. intelligence report in December said that Iran had stopped its atomic-weapons program in 2003. Iran says it is enriching uranium as fuel for nuclear-power plants.
Ahmadinejad's verbal attacks on Israel, Iran's influence as an oil exporter and the continuing doubt over Iran's nuclear ambitions make him a destabilizing force in the Middle East, Beinart said.
• Kim Jong-il: Railing against the United States' "adventurous strategy for world domination" and its "ideological and cultural poisoning" of other countries, North Korea's government churns out a daily stream of anti-American diatribes while praising its dictator's "undying feats."
But the real danger is Kim's nuclear and missile arsenal, Beinart said.
The country tested its first nuclear weapon in 2006 and is working on a Taepodong-2 missile that could hit parts of the United States.
The country is believed to have sold missile technology to Iran, Syria, Pakistan and Yemen.
• Robert Mugabe: Accusing the United States of sponsoring opposition "stooges," Mugabe's Zimbabwean government has become an international pariah by seizing farms owned by White citizens and cracking down on government opponents.
On Feb. 14, President Bush called President Mugabe "a discredited dictator" who has brought a "nightmare" to Zimbabwe.
The United States has imposed travel and economic sanctions on Mugabe and members of his government.
