Did you know that the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing this week involving actual senators and tax dollars to determine whether or not the Venezuelan military had too many weapons? And that they found that, indeed, the country has "three or four times" more weapons than necessary? This was determined using a complex algorithm involving population concentrations divided into THEY JUST PULLED IT OUT OF THEIR ASS.
Venezuela, for the record, "continues to lag a considerable distance" behind other large Latin American countries in terms of military spending, according to a Center for International Policy study last year. (More analyses here and here). The United States, let’s just say, does not. But the extra hee-larious part came in the Q&A session, as described by Greg Weeks's blog:
· Venezuela might be helping the FARC, but all the evidence suggests the purchased rifles are going into armoriesWhew, I’m glad we had an Armed Services Committee hearing to clear all that up! Here are a few other things that might exist in Venezuela: volcanoes, lions, aluminum centrifugal tubes, marmite, space rockets, vampires, Elton John, and yellowcake. We’ll never know unless we guess!
· Venezuela "could very well be" destabilizing neighbors, but we have no evidence of it
· Chávez might have bought the weapons for domestic control, but we have no evidence of it
· As a topper, in Cuba the move from Fidel to Raúl may spark mayhem, but we have no evidence of it
