Venezuela recently announced a joint exercise with Russian Navy ships and about 1,000 Russian Soldiers. The Russians would be in the Caribbean Sea from November 10th to the 14th to participate in the joint military exercise with Venezuela.

Current U.S. - Russian tensions are already running high with the situation in Georgia and U.S. missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. It seems that Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez wants to further fuel those fires and a South American arms race by inviting the Russians into his country and buying billions of dollars in arms from Russia.

Chavez claims to fear a U.S. invasion, however his posturing, buddying up with Russia and arms build-up seems to be an indication of preparations for Venezuela to settle disputes with neighbors Columbia and Guyana militarily. With billions of barrels of offshore oil at stake, it is most likely that he fears the United States coming to the aid of Venezuela's neighbors.

If the United States were not otherwise engaged we would probably see some joint exercises with catchy names such as "Southern Lightning" or "Caribbean Thunder" going on with some of Venezuela's neighbors. As it stands now, I would guess that the U.S. Navy's recently reactivated 4th Fleet will be stepping up patrols in the area or possibly dusting off that exercise that "has been planned for months" in the Caribbean.

Here we go again..tit for tat..the U.S. places a missile defense system in Poland, the Russians set one up in Venezuela. Hugo Chavez buys Russian arms, Columbia gets new toys from the U.S. arsenal...

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