Who'll Back Monroe Doctrine?

THIS BRINGS TO MIND THE MEANING OF HAVING STRENGTH TO ABSOLUTELY ENFORCE THE MONROE DOCTRINE. AND DO WE HAVE THE FORCE AND DO WE HAVE SOMEONE WITH THE SPINE TO BRING TO FACE THE DOCTRINE.



Who'll Back Monroe Doctrine?


By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, September 16, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Geopolitics: The Black Sea-Caribbean chess game continues. The flight of two Russian bombers to Venezuela raises the possibility of the next president, or even this one, being forced to intervene in our own hemisphere.

There are enough definitions of the Bush Doctrine to make it a separate category on the game show "Jeopardy." Gov. Sarah Palin was grilled on it by ABC's Charles Gibson as a test of her competence for higher office. But there's another doctrine no one remembers that may prove critical in the next four years.

Touring journalists captured the outline of a Russian Tu-160 "Blackjack" nuclear-capable bomber in August at a military base south of Moscow. Two Tu-160s landed last week in Venezuela as part of Russia's attempt to meddle in America's hemisphere.
In President James Monroe's Annual Message to Congress on Dec. 2, 1823, he delivered what has come to be called the Monroe Doctrine.

The United States sent a "keep off the grass" message to the powers of the Old World that the Americas were no longer open to European colonization, and that any effort to extend European political influence into the New World would be considered by the U.S. "as dangerous to our peace and safety."

The Monroe Doctrine figured prominently before and during the Cuban Missile Crisis as the Soviet Union tried to establish a permanent military base in Cuba and extend the Warsaw Pact into our hemisphere.

At an Aug. 29, 1962, press conference, President Kennedy warned Moscow: "The Monroe Doctrine means what it has meant since President Monroe and John Quincy Adams enunciated it, and that is that we would oppose a foreign power extending its power to the Western Hemisphere, and that is why we oppose what is happening in Cuba today."

Oppose Moscow we did, blockading Cuba and forcing the removal of Soviet bombers and missiles targeted on the United States.

The Russian bear is back in our neck of the woods, and a foreign power is once again trying to extend its power to the Western Hemisphere. Moscow has found willing accomplices, reconnecting with its old ally Cuba and finding common cause in the anti-U.S. regime of Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Moscow bided its time, watching as NATO expanded well into the old "Evil Empire."

Now, flush with energy revenues and a rebuilding military, the empire is striking back, starting with NATO wannabe Georgia. The presence of U.S. and NATO warships in the Black Sea delivering supplies to the Georgian port of Poti, led by the USS Mount Whitney, has not amused the reborn czars.

A week ago, a pair of supersonic and nuclear-capable Russian Tu-160 "Blackjack" bombers landed in Venezuela, ostensibly to conduct patrols over neutral waters in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The planes, which were escorted by U.S. aircraft all the way, were scheduled to stay a month. Defying expectations, the planes are now due to leave Thursday.

Still, the potential presence of Russian bombers in the Caribbean if and when that phone rings at 3 a.m. seriously complicates things.

So do joint military exercises scheduled for November, perhaps Russia's most provocative move since the Soviet Union supported Marxist guerrillas in Nicaragua and El Salvador. The chief of Venezuela's naval intelligence, Admiral Salbatore Cammarata Bastidas, says a flotilla of Russian warships, along with 1,000 Russian soldiers, will be headed to Caracas this year.

"The Russians are clearly signaling to the Americans that their presence in the Black Sea will be met by a Russian presence in the Caribbean," said Stratfor analyst George Friedman.

The Russian armada will include the Kirov-class "Peter the Great," a nuclear-powered heavy missile cruiser, one of the largest warships in the world. It is armed with SS-N-19 Shipwreck long-range anti-ship missiles. She will be sailing in an area where nine of every 14 barrels of imported oil, even some Alaskan oil, must transit.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Navy decided to re-form the Fourth Fleet to patrol the Caribbean.

The fleet, disbanded in 1953, is said to be needed for drug interdiction following the flood of trafficking from Venezuela after its 2005 cutoff of cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration. We suspect it will also keep an eye out for Russian heavy cruisers.

JFK thought the Monroe Doctrine still meant what it said. Do we? In a confrontation, who will blink this time?


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