Sunday, February 25, 2007

Venezuelan defense spending

The NYT has an article on Venezuela’s military spending and arms build up (which I’ve briefly noted before) and it does a good job of explaining the views of both proponents and opponents. Even for Chávez supporters, however, it is hard to imagine anything positive about the massive amounts being spent.

  • it is money that could be spent on economic development
  • if the U.S. wanted to oust Chávez, it would try to do so internally and not by invasion, so a deterrence force is pointless
  • it could easily spark a regional arms race (at least to some degree, and any degree is bad)
  • arguing that Venezuela spends proportionately less than the U.S. or other countries is not a good rationale (it is similar to the “you can’t criticize Chávez because what Bush does is worse” argument)
  • since the National Assembly is not being consulted, it is another example of the erosion of Venezuelan democratic institutions

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