http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/11/01/venezuela.jets.ap/index.html

Quote :

""We can do whatever we want with the planes. Maybe we'll send 10 to Cuba, or maybe to China so that they can see the technology," said Chavez"

the idiot speaks again

11/2/2005 9:41:12 AM

let them have the F16's. they are outdated planes with old technology. they are being phased out in our military structure to make way for newer, better, more advanced planes like the JSF, F22, etc.

11/2/2005 9:46:29 AM

just becuase we have more advanced planes doesn't mean taht a plane like an F-16 wouldn't be just as dangerous...

it only takes one plane to deliver a bomb

11/2/2005 9:53:49 AM

well
if the us isn't going to do the upkeep they promised to do

why not outsource it to china

he's gotta keep his planes in the air....

11/2/2005 11:32:10 AM

^^tim, by that that thinking, they already have planes anyway, so what does it matter.

11/2/2005 11:52:51 AM

its so very amusing that we talk tough about china and treat them like an enemy in policy descisions...

but w/o them, things wouldnt be nearly as nice for US citizens right now (ie: your wallet).

11/2/2005 11:57:49 AM

I don't see why we harass them so much with selling spare parts to them. It's not like they're going to launch air strikes against the United States with them.

Quote :

"it only takes one plane to deliver a bomb"

The Chinese don't need our plane to figure that out. They've already got ICBMs and boomers to deliver ordinance anywhere on the globe. That and a nice fleet of Su-27 variants which I'm sure they've modified for an attack role by now.

I dunno, with Chavez, I just feel like we're feeding South America's equivalent of a message board troll. Unless we're intentionally building him up for some nefarious purpose.

11/2/2005 12:07:56 PM

^well, castro is going to be leaving us in the coming years...gotta get ready for the New Cuban Order

11/2/2005 12:11:01 PM

Were we selling military hardware to Venezuela in the years right before we invade? Silly Chavez, he should have know better than to accept the weapons and give us an excuse.

11/2/2005 1:41:01 PM

Time to send in Pat Robertson.

11/2/2005 1:49:41 PM

Just take out their F16s with a tactical strike and don't give them any more. Problem solved.

11/2/2005 1:58:35 PM

Yeah, well the thing with that is that it falls into the "act of war" category.

11/2/2005 2:02:27 PM

dammit we need to fucking nuke that country.

11/2/2005 3:46:46 PM

yeah lets take their oil too.

11/2/2005 3:51:55 PM

^^^ i'd be real worried about venezuela's response to that

spitballs?

11/2/2005 3:54:32 PM

the second we invade chavez and his country not only will our country erupt in civil war, the rest of the world will collectively condemn the hell out of us.... i mean chavez would have to be osama himself in a mask to justify such a move.

11/2/2005 4:05:32 PM

we're not talking about an invasion here

we're talking about a tactical strike that takes out all the f-16's

11/2/2005 4:10:05 PM

^^ Wait, why would America errupt in civil war? All the men with guns, red staters, would probably tolerate the invasion.

Even if one was started it would be pretty short. Last I checked, the state militia of Texas was a fair size larger than that of New York.

11/2/2005 4:38:20 PM

FIX R PLANEZ!

11/2/2005 4:40:04 PM

YOU DONT HAVE ANY PROOF THEY HAVE PLANES!!!


NO BLOOD FOR COFFEE!

11/2/2005 4:56:45 PM

the F-16s THAT WE SOLD THEM?

so, we're fine with the world having toys, but only if they play with them our way

yeah
thats gonna tone down our imperialist nation-builder image that the world hates so much

^^^and dumbass
i think that same thinking worked out well, oh, about 143 years ago

ps
the country would really get fucked because he would just up and cut off our oil

[Edited on November 2, 2005 at 5:00 PM. Reason : i hate some people sometimes]

11/2/2005 4:58:59 PM

Ahahahahaa Chavez is awesome.

He's kind of like a hispanic Traficant.

11/2/2005 5:22:35 PM

hispanic means he's from spanish stock, like from Spain

he's latino

11/2/2005 5:27:57 PM

WE NEED A NEW MAINE!

11/2/2005 5:50:50 PM

11/2/2005 6:21:13 PM

11/2/2005 6:22:50 PM

Quote :

"Time to send in Pat Robertson."

I say its time for a death-match.

I can't imagine a bad outcome to this.

11/2/2005 8:16:24 PM

11/2/2005 8:49:23 PM

^i said a hip hop a hippy to the hop you don't stop round the clock

11/2/2005 9:41:09 PM

I'M OFFICIALLY PUTTING THIS IN EVERY CHAVEZ THREAD FROM NOW ON

11/2/2005 9:47:42 PM

11/2/2005 10:03:39 PM

I would be incredibly surprised to find that China doesn't already have access to the technology that goes into an F-16. The plane is something like twenty years old now, right? And it's not like the thing is some rare, US-exclusive piece of machinery (like the SR-71 or B-2) that we have kept closely guarded to ourselves.

Maybe Cuba doesn't have the technology, but even if we sent them the fucking schematics, they wouldn't be able to do anything with them.

Just let Chavez play the macho man and ignore him. It will make him look stupid.

11/2/2005 11:42:43 PM

F-16s have been operational for over 25 years. they're a quite capable airplane, but they were designed from the get-go to be a 2nd-tier fighter, cheaper to produce and operate than F-14s and F-15s. now, with the F-22 and F-35 coming online, the F-16 is a 3rd-tier machine.

still useful, but it's not like it's really the state of the art...and we've exported a bazillion of them. i think they're even produced under license in other countries.

i'm fairly sure that China already has stuff more capable than F-16s. if they have Su-27s, then they definitely do.


maybe i'm not looking at this correctly, or there's something i don't know, but i have at least some more knowledge than the average bear on this subject, and it seems to me like this is a complete non-issue. it's not even GOOD political blustering because it's not even an empty threat--it's not a threat at all.

^and yeah, even if we gave Cuba all of our own F-16s, what in the hell are they gonna do to us? Jack shit.

[Edited on November 2, 2005 at 11:57 PM. Reason : asdf]

11/2/2005 11:56:46 PM

He's just being a dick.

11/3/2005 12:20:33 AM

I still don't understand why Chavez is such a threat to the United States, outside of his crazy rhetoric. I get the impression that if we just ignore him, then the one thing that makes him so attractive would just disappear. Pretty much all of his threats are trivial at best; they're simply provocative because of their symbolic nature.

For example, President Chavez was saying, "Venezuela has the right to build nuclear power for peaceful purposes! The United States is going to try and stop us! Etc. etc. etc." Bush's response yesterday, "I don't see any problem with them having it as long as they allow proper oversight by the IAEA." Suddenly, he looks like a paranoid loon.

The two real threats that he has at his disposal he won't use because it would hurt Venezuela more than us: cut oil exports off to the United States and aggressively fund FARC guerillas in the Columbian civil war. As long as Venezuelan oil flows into the general market, prices won't be affected for us that much, and cutting off the United States would simply deny Venezuela access to one of its closest, most convenient, and most lucrative markets. He's not going to go all out with FARC either because destabilizing Columbia further is going to make a mess in his own backyard.

11/3/2005 10:52:47 AM

Quote :

"I still don't understand why Chavez is such a threat to the United States"

Who said he was a threat to the US? As far as I can figure, he is only a threat to the people of South America which America only pretends to care about, as such, we must pretend to feel threatened by Chavez.

11/3/2005 5:45:49 PM

Run the nuclear program into the ground, Herb!

11/3/2005 6:00:37 PM

Chavez is like my cousin.

The kid throws a bitch fit and starts going apeshit whenever we ignore him.

11/3/2005 6:54:11 PM

Chavez might want to send them a whole of spare parts and a lot of instructor pilots and maintenance personnel for the aircraft.

Planes by themselves are nothing. They need parts and trained pilots to make them work. Even then, what's in the aircraft that these guys can't get from open sources?


[Edited on November 5, 2005 at 11:56 AM. Reason : .]

11/5/2005 11:53:41 AM

This guy will be dead in 2 months.

11/6/2005 3:11:10 PM

11/7/2005 8:21:37 AM

F-16's are ancient

11/7/2005 10:15:37 AM

Quote :

"They need parts ... to make them work"

thats the point

the US is apparently refusing to honor the contract to provide parts/materials vital to the upkeep of the planes

11/7/2005 10:39:24 AM

you could argue that the contract was inked with a previous government and that the new government was in breach

but just give him the parts. what's he going to do with the planes? jack shit.

11/7/2005 10:43:58 AM

^he should take the wings off the fuselages and make some bad ass banana boats.

11/7/2005 12:04:51 PM

nah that's what the cubans are going to do with them and try to float to florida

11/7/2005 12:06:46 PM