BoRev.Net

The Heritage Foundation would totally be over there Killing Arabs for Freedom right now if it weren’t for, you know, the asthma. Instead, their patriotic staff will settle for whipping up honor and glory for other people’s kids, God bless ‘em.

This month, HF’s resident Patriot-In-Chief Peter Brookes came really close to ensuring greatness for another generation of noble American paraplegics heroes, but was tragically outflanked by a cunning communist cell D.C. think tank. We’ll get to that. But first! Brookes writes:

One of the most eye-popping elements of Chavismo is Venezuela's arms purchases. Flush with oil profits, Chavez, a former army lieutenant colonel, has been buying as much shiny military hardware as possible.

Since 2005, he's spent more than $4 billion on foreign weapons, making tiny Venezuela one of the world's most aggressive arms purchasers. In 2006 alone, arms spending was up 13 percent, according to some estimates.

Some analysts project that if oil prices remain high, say, at more than $50 a barrel, Venezuela could spend as much as $30 billion on arms by 2012, the end of Chavez's third term in office. Caracas is already the largest arms buyer in the region — and is expected to be so for the foreseeable future.

So let’s roll, right? Chavez clearly wants to invade your mama and everything she represents. But, lo: it’s bullshit, and unfortunately-timed bullshit at that. Just at print time, the dastardly Center for International Policy unleashed a secret weapon: facts. Their report takes a sinister big-picture look at the region, and we find:

>>> In the region, Venezuela “continues to lag a considerable distance behind the most powerful countries militarily”

>>> Chile is the top arms spender in recent years in both total and per capita numbers. Number two, as if you needed to ask, is Colombia.

>>>And oh, yeah, Venezuelan arms strategy is pretty understandable given all those U.S. military “exercises” off its coast and, y’know, that “Iraq experience.”

Curse you CIP! You’ve won this battle, but you haven’t won the (never ending) war. Peter Brookes and the Heritage Foundation can find a patriot’s solace in this point, though: Argentina has undergone a “’steady but gradual process’ of rearming in the last 15 years.” Dude, let’s invade the Falklands and see what happens!