calling a spade a shovel

[rone]

Jym Dyer at meme_machine_go suggests that we call Pat Robertson's actions by their proper name: he has issued a fatwah.

Comments

[pennyhill.livejournal.com]

why did the White House back away?

It's clearly not on the White House agenda to bump off President Chavez. One reason COULD be that he's a legitimately elected president in a democratic country. And you could say "pish" to all that and probably be right.

Better reason: Venezuela a wealthy Latin American democratic country whose main export is oil. In past news stories I've read, the importance of access to Venezuelan oil is always underscored when discussing the instability in the Middle East, and also when discussing the growing competition for fuels, particularly from China, whose enconomy is coming on like gangbusters. (Private ownership of automobiles has skyrocketed in the last 3-5 years.)

And that would my best guess about why the Bush Administration backed away from Pat Roberton's fatwah. Bush himself used very much the same words when talking about Saddam. "We've got to take him out" comes to mind. And you well know that in the past the US has acted directly, fomented rebellion, and/or funded "freedom fighters" to topple Latin American governments.

By the way - I saw news coverage of Robertson's fatwah on television last night. Network news; don't remember the network.