RUSSIA SETS UP SHOP IN VENEZUELA

Man, these guys are good. While President Indecision hems and haws on troop deployment to Afghanistan the Russians turn up the heat in our hemisphere. It's a win-win for them. They cause a giant headache for the Obama administration and get even more of a foothold in South America. As they continue to stir the pot and foment unrest in our part of the world we will not see any meaningful counter from the U.S. This will eventually force us to focus on problems close to home, leaving the Eurasian continent free for the Russians and Chinese to fight over. We can't afford to fight the war in the Middle East, much less there and South America. We are going to be forced to defend our own borders and nothing more, isolating America from the world. Our days as a superpower in more than name only are quickly drawing to a close.

"Russia is building arms plants in Venezuela to produce AK-103 automatic rifles and cartridges and is finalizing contracts to send 53 military helicopters to the Andean nation, Moscow's envoy to Venezuela said Monday.

Ambassador Vladmir Zaemskiy told a news conference that Russian engineers and Venezuelan construction firms were building the rifle and cartridge plants which, when operational, would employ more than 1,500 workers."

Forbes