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Chavez vs the USA

So you admit that Chavez has accused the US of invading and occupying Haiti?


The US sent military forces into Haiti, without a formal request for the US to do so from the Haiti government. That is technically invading. While the troops remained there, they were technically occupying. It's not what we usually mean when we talk about invading or occupying a country, but it is technically correct. The words invasion and occupation were used in this way by a number of right-wing critics of Obama, as well as by Chavez.

I think this kind of political rhetoric is unhelpful. I wish more people would try to avoid overblown rhetoric. But this kind of rhetoric has become a staple of modern political discourse. It is employed on a daily basis by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, numerous elected officials -- and, sadly, too many posters on forums such as this one.

Using overblown and emotionally-charged words, however, is not the same as making wild claims. There is nothing I can see in the quoted portions of Chavez's text which says that the US was invading Haiti in order to take it over -- let alone that he was invading Haiti in order to take over either Cuba or Venezuela.

If you are able to see that in a statement by Chavez, please quote the actual text so that the rest of us can see if you are correct.
 
Really? It's not like he just burst into the news yesterday.


Yes, really.

1. I do not subscribe to a daily newspaper.

2. The only tv station I'm able to receive since tv went digital is PBS, and I find the news there barely worth watching. During warm weather I do occasionally tune in the News Hour, especially if there is a story I'm interested in the news that day and I think they might do a segment on it. But I'm usually disappointed when I do, by the low content-to-time ratio. During cold weather I don't bother, since the tv is in an unheated room and I don't think it's worth starting a fire in the wood stove there just to watch 5 or 10 minutes of poor television.

3. The nearest library to me -- a 12 mile bike ride away -- is a 1-room library with a limited collection of books. Once every month or two I am able to get into Cookeville or Knoxville, which have good libraries, and look up things of interest to me. I have limited library time on these trips, and an almost unlimited list of things I am curious about. Hugo Chavez has not been high on that list.

4. Therefore the main source of my information-to-date on Venezuela and Chavez is what I see online, such as in at this forum. And given the very low quality of the information which has been posted about Chavez in the threads here, I really don't feel informed enough to form much of an opinion.
 
The US sent military forces into Haiti, without a formal request for the US to do so from the Haiti government. That is technically invading. While the troops remained there, they were technically occupying.
Evidence?

Yes, really.

1. I do not subscribe to a daily newspaper.

2. The only tv station I'm able to receive since tv went digital is PBS, and I find the news there barely worth watching. During warm weather I do occasionally tune in the News Hour, especially if there is a story I'm interested in the news that day and I think they might do a segment on it. But I'm usually disappointed when I do, by the low content-to-time ratio. During cold weather I don't bother, since the tv is in an unheated room and I don't think it's worth starting a fire in the wood stove there just to watch 5 or 10 minutes of poor television.

3. The nearest library to me -- a 12 mile bike ride away -- is a 1-room library with a limited collection of books. Once every month or two I am able to get into Cookeville or Knoxville, which have good libraries, and look up things of interest to me. I have limited library time on these trips, and an almost unlimited list of things I am curious about. Hugo Chavez has not been high on that list.

4. Therefore the main source of my information-to-date on Venezuela and Chavez is what I see online, such as in at this forum. And given the very low quality of the information which has been posted about Chavez in the threads here, I really don't feel informed enough to form much of an opinion.
Cut off from the entire world, except for your internet connection!

So you do have full access to news, you just choose not to.

And have you heard about this thing called "google"?
 
Nova Land, i recommend the following thread where DC and myself have put considerable efforts into educating the politics forum about what is going on in Venezuela. The title is also based on a statement of Chavez as reported by US media - this time not made up, but taken out of context and overblown:

Send in the tanks! (Chavez)

Still a lot of noise, but as informative as it gets here.
 
The US sent military forces into Haiti, without a formal request for the US to do so from the Haiti government. That is technically invading. While the troops remained there, they were technically occupying.

100% false. The president Préval and the Haïtian ambassador Joseph asked the US directly for their help.

Also, it's not just the US who sent military forces to Haïti, also the Canadian forces and the MINUSTAH.

http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/

And you're off-topic.
 
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100% false. The president Préval and the Haïtian ambassador Joseph asked the US directly for their help.


Did they ask for the US to send help, or did they ask the US to send military forces?

Quite a number of people other than Chavez think Haiti did not request the US to send military troops. Here, for example, is a conversation between Hugh Hewitt and Christopher Hitchens:

Hewitt: We’ve invaded Haiti. We dropped troops on the presidential palace yesterday. The difference between Bush invading Iraq, and Obama invading Haiti, is that Bush had Congressional authorization. I’m glad that President Obama has done this, but don’t you find it odd that the left is all quiet as to this extraordinary exercise in presidential prerogative unguided by, unauthorized by simply unilateral on the part of the President?

Hitchens: Yes, not seeking any international body, and as far as we know, though it’s very hard to be sure, no permission, not that I think their constitution would allow them permission, from a Haitian government, either.


Now, it's quite possible that Hewitt and Hitchens are wrong and that military intervention was requested by the Haitian government. My point is simply that what Chavez actually said was something a number of other people were also saying and was not what people in this thread such as Wildcat and Travis were alleging he said.

And you're off-topic.


The topic I'm I'm trying to address is: Did Chavez actually say the things which several people in this thread -- Wildcat, Travis, and Alferd Packerd, among others -- claim he did? Alferd had agreed that Chavez did not; Wildcat and Travis continue to evade the question.

First it was alleged that Chavez had said the US caused the Haitian earthquake. I think (hope!) people now realize that claim was false. Then Travis introduced a new claim, that Chavez had said the US invaded Haiti as a prelude to invading Cuba or Venezuela. I'm still waiting to see someone quote a passage in which Chavez actually said that.

I agree that questions which Travis and Wildcat have introduced since then (and which I replied to) are digressions. The key question is still whether anyone can produce a quote from Chavez in which he said either that the US caused the Haiti earthquake or in which he said that the US sent troops to Haiti as part of a plan to invade Cuba and/or Venezuela.
 
And again you successfully ignored the military presence of Canada and the MINUSTAH.

There's already multiple threads about Haïti. I suggest you don't derail this one.
 
And again you successfully ignored the military presence of Canada and the MINUSTAH.


Yes, because that is irrelevant to the topic. The original topic had to do with the claim -- now generally admitted to be false -- that Chavez or his government had said the Haiti earthquake was caused by the US. Then Travis, while admitting the falsity of the original claim, added a new claim: that Chavez had said the US invaded Haiti as a prelude to invading Cuba and/or Venezuela.

Chavez did label the US action as an invasion -- as did number of others. None of them appear to be using the word invasion in the sense of going into a country in order to seize power. Whether the way they are using the word invasion is suitable or not is a digression. Likewise, whether other countries joined in the action is a digression. The question is whether Chavez said what Travis claimed he did. So far, from the failure of anyone to provide text in which Chavez said it, it would appear he didn't.

There's already multiple threads about Haïti. I suggest you don't derail this one.


I'm sorry, but I don't understand how my repeatedly asking people who are making claims about what Chavez allegedly said to provide the text of these alleged statements is derailing.
 
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Evidence?


Cut off from the entire world, except for your internet connection!

So you do have full access to news, you just choose not to.

And have you heard about this thing called "google"?

Serioulsy, almost all daily papers have online editions for free. There ain't no excuse for relying on bad sources because your main connection with the outside world is the Internet.
 
Seriously, almost all daily papers have online editions for free. There ain't no excuse for relying on bad sources because your main connection with the outside world is the Internet.


You miss the point. Wildcat expressed surprise that I am do not consider myself informed enough about Chavez to hold an opinion on him, since he has been in the news a lot. I explained that I do not follow the news.

As for relying on bad sources, I don't. If I don't have time to look into a subject, I try not to form opinions about it.

In the case of Chavez, I don't have the time to look into him. There are too many other things of more interest and importance to me which I need to be doing. Therefore, while I have vague impressions of Chavez from what I've heard as background noise, I have formed no strong opinion about him or his government. I am neither a defender nor a detractor.

As a skeptic, however, I am a detractor of those who confidently attribute "quotes" to people without bothering to look up for themselves what the person in question actually said.

In this thread, and in one over in Politics a short while back, a number of posters were making snide comments about Chavez based on their belief that Chavez had said the US caused the Haiti earthquake. It now seems clear that belief was unfounded. Similarly, Travis in this thread claimed that Chavez had said the US invaded Haiti as a prelude to invading Cuba and/or Venezuela -- a belief which appears similarly unfounded, although Travis and several others seem to be clinging to it.

These are the people who are relying on bad sources, and the people you should be addressing with your criticism.

It is elementary skepticism that, if you are going to attribute words to Person A, you should first look up what Person A actually said. So far no one has provided a transcript of any statement by Chavez in which he said either (a) that the US caused the Haiti earthquake or (b) that the US presence in Haiti is a step toward invading Cuba and/or Nicaragua. That indicates that we have a fair number of people posting here who still don't understand elementary skepticism.
 
For one reason: because you think humanitarian aid can more effectively be accomplished by sending fewer troops and more relief workers.

Except troops are relief workers which makes that entire argument worse than stupid.

You asserted that Chavez had said the US sent troops to Haiti as a prelude to an invasion of Cuba or Venezuela.

You conveniently left out the most important part of my post "He did claim the USA was using the Haiti quake as a pretext to invade that country in order to use it as a springboard to attack Cuba, or him, or something." Indicating that not even I can look into the crazy mind of Chavez and discern what ratball of illlogic is being kicked around at that moment. Maybe he thinks it's a jumping off point for an invasion of Cuba or Venezuela or maybe he thinks they're setting up a worldwide plague of clowns. Who knows what that nutbag is thinking about when he dispenses his vile brain droppings?
 
LOL

and the self declared skpetics here will belive it without even doubting one second, and a few hours later they get once again debunked.

skeptics lol
 
But...

Didn't the US already take over Haiti when it backed the criminal rebellion and kidnapped Aristide back in 04?
 
I absolutely adore how Chavez propgandists on JREF think its somehow not nuts to simply claim the US is using the Haiti earthquake as a pretext to "invade" a country which holds no material foreign interest for the government. The Chavez cheerleaders were quick to point out that Chavez didn't claim the USA caused the earthquake, he only made a slightly less kooky claim without evidence about the USA trying to invade a foreign country.

Because that is a completely normal and sane thing to say, and there is plenty of evidence..er..what, we don't have any evidence for that one either? Quick, JREF Chavez propagandists, spin it again!
 
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I absolutely adore how Chavez propgandists on JREF think its somehow not nuts to simply claim the US is using the Haiti earthquake as a pretext to "invade" a country which holds no material foreign interest for the government.

The Chavez cheerleaders were quick to point out that Chavez didn't claim the USA caused the earthquake, he only made a slightly less kooky claim without evidence about the USA trying to invade a foreign country.

LOL propagandists :)

but if he did indeed claim this, i do disagree with him on that point.

It still is funny to see many people beliving everything that goes against Chavez.
 
It is hilarious to watch people flail about and do everything they can to defend Chavez.

Quick! Spin it (again)! Damage control!
 
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This wins some kind of "quibbling over meaningless technicalities" award.


Quite possibly. You should take it up with Hewitt and Hitchens; they are the ones who appear to me to be making this distinction in order to criticize Obama's action in sending troops to Haiti. Read the portion of their on-air conversation which I linked to and quoted.

The point I am trying to make is quite simple. I am not saying the US invaded Haiti. I am saying that a number of people who referred to the US action in Haiti as an invasion did were using overblown rhetoric when they did so rather than making conspiratorial claims.

This is the kind of thing Rush Limbaugh, as one example, does on a daily basis. He uses words with loaded emotional connotations. When he said in regards to health care reform, "It's Hiroshima time, folks. It's Nagasaki", he wasn't literally saying there would be atomic bombs dropped on US cities if Obama's health care reform is passed.

I am not in agreement with Hewitt or Hitchens in describing Obama's relief efforts an an invasion. They argue that, because Obama did not get approval from Congress before sending US troops over to Haiti, it was an invasion. If you wish to criticize them for this, be my guest. But the criticism should be that they are using inflated rhetoric in behalf of a stupid point -- not that they are promoting conspiracy theories.

Similarly, Chavez used the word invasion in his criticism of Obama's relief efforts. His criticism of Obama's actions is different. It is not the lack of Congressional approval which bothers him; it is that the US sent more military equipment than the situation called for and fewer relief supplies.

I think that's a more reasonable criticism of the relief effort than the one Hewitt and Hitchens are making. Whether Chavez is justified in making that criticism or not, I don't know; I am not familiar enough with the logistics of relief efforts in general, and this one in particular, to say. But whether it's a sensible or foolish criticism is beside the point.

Chavez used overblown rhetoric to make his point. That's something which it is quite fair to criticize him for. But the criticism should be that he used Rush Limbaugh-like overblown rhetoric -- not that he made Orly Taitz-like or Alex Jones-like conspiracy claims.

Travis and others have tried to seize upon the word invasion in Chavez's remarks and distort it into a claim that Chavez believed the US had invaded Haiti as part of a plan to invade Cuba and/or Venezuela. But, as Travis' continued refusal to produce such a quote demonstrates, that was a dishonest misrepresentation of what Chavez said. That is the point I am trying to make -- and the point which you, Wildcat and Pardalis seem to be missing.
 
Except troops are relief workers which makes that entire argument worse than stupid.


It may or may not be a stupid argument. I'll leave that up to people who are familiar with relief efforts.

But you said Chavez's criticism of US relief efforts could only be because he thought these efforts had a nefarious purpose. Whether his belief that US efforts were less effective than they could have been is wise or stupid, it is the reason he gave -- and it is quite different from the one you misrepresented him as giving.

It is one thing for you to mistakenly misrepresent what Chavez said. Alferd Packerd also misrepresented what Chavez said -- but when this was demonstrated to him, he accepted he had been mistaken and apologized. That is how a skeptic should behave. To continue to defend a dishonest point in the fashion you are doing is not.

If you honestly believe Chavez said what you have attributed to him, please find a transcript of the remark and share it with the rest of us. If he did not say what you attributed to him, please be honest enough to state that.

You conveniently left out the most important part of my post "He did claim the USA was using the Haiti quake as a pretext to invade that country in order to use it as a springboard to attack Cuba, or him, or something."


No. That won't do. The words or something tacked onto a purported quote are not an all-purpose excuse card for distorting or lying about what someone else has said. What the words or something mean in that context is or something similar to that.

You claimed that Chavez said that "the USA was using the Haiti quake as a pretext to invade that country in order to use it as a springboard to attack Cuba, or him, or something....." The or something indicates you don't remember this exactly but it is something like what you have represented. For instance, he may not have used the exact word pretext. He may not have used the exact word invasion. He may have referred to a country other than Cuba or Venezuela. But for your representation of his remarks to be a fair representation of his remarks, he needs to have said the US was planning something like an invasion of some country such as Cuba or Venezuela. Chavez's actual statement says nothing of the kind.

Here. Let me demonstrate for you the limits of an or something clause. Suppose someone started a thread saying that you have said you enjoy molesting goats. And suppose I were to defend you by saying that this is not true, you have not said that, but that you have said that you rarely saw girls in your college library because you preferred spending time raping your sister or something.

I mean, that's true, isn't it? You did say in a post that you rarely saw girls in your college library. And if I didn't get the part about you liking to rape your sister exactly right, well, I qualified that with the or something, so no problem, right?

No. The or something would not excuse my posting scurrilous misrepresentations of what you have said. And it doesn't excuse you posting scurrilous misrepresentations of what Chavez has said.


Indicating that not even I can look into the crazy mind of Chavez and discern what ratball of illlogic is being kicked around at that moment. Maybe he thinks it's a jumping off point for an invasion of Cuba or Venezuela or maybe he thinks they're setting up a worldwide plague of clowns. Who knows what that nutbag is thinking about when he dispenses his vile brain droppings?


Interesting. You get caught misrepresenting what Chavez has said, and instead of admitting you were wrong and apologizing for spreading misinformation, as Alferd did, you choose instead to blame your mistake on Chavez.

Maybe he does think it's a jumping point for an invasion. Maybe you do think raping your sister is a lot of fun. As you say, who knows? But until or unless he or you say any such things, it is dishonest to claim that he or you have.
 

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