It is the nature of socialist countries to try to expand and attack their neighbors. North Vietnam took South Vietnam. China took Tibet. The Soviet Union took everything it could. So it makes me wonder if Chavez isn’t looking for a reason to invade Colombia. He certainly has been building up his military for some reason, and now has taken to open threats against his neighbors:

“This could be the start of a war in South America,” Chavez said. He warned Colombian president Alvaro Uribe: “If it occurs to you to do this in Venezuela, President Uribe, I’ll send some Sukhois” _ Russian warplanes recently bought by Venezuela.

This is no small threat. In the past several years Chavez has spent , according to the Defense Intelligence Agency, $4.3 billion in weapons in 2005-2006, more even than China. This includes a Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK-47) factory licensed from Russia. For a nation not at war, this is hardly an auspicious sign.

This is the alliance many of us have warned of for some time. Chavez, Correa, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Evo Morales in Bolivia have been trying for some time now to form an anti-American bloc in Latin America but have no coherent ideology to counter the changes in the world.

Chavez is playing a dangerous hand, and if he actually thinks he can get away with it, will do more than talk. America could find itself fighting in a South American war. Let’s hope Chavez has more sense than I give him credit for, but I think some warships are going to find their way south before long.

Let’s hope I’m wrong.