Jackson Diehl: Chávez likely isn't a real threat, yet still hard to defeat

Hugo Chávez, president of venezuela, has folks in Washington debating on whether or not he poses any serious threat to the United States or, as The Washington Post's Jackson Diehl suggests, a "buffoonish nuisance who is best ignored." The Obama administration initially intended to "engage" Chávez, which I suppose suggests some kind of military or political pressure on Chávez , who is apparently supported by less than half of Venezuelans, which is odd because Venezuala is supposed to have a Democratic government, something that the public is supposed to want. However, their Democratic government is really just Chávez pulling the strings to make it impossible for any others to come into office, and he creates restricting laws to strip them of their powers, and creates other authoritative establishments to remain in charge on essentially everything. Although these are internal conflicts, Chávez has the potential to become a threat to the security of the U.S. at some level; former State Department Assistant Secretary Roger Noriega publicly brought forth evidence that paints Chávez as an "active collaberator in Iran's nuclear program", which is a cause for alarm if it stands as the truth. Jackson Diehl, a reporter for the Washington Post, believes that although there is possible evidence that points toward Chávez indirectly aiding Iranian Nuclear arms production, he also believes that the Obama administration has played a part in Chávez's rise to infamy; a lack of action or even apparent care about this new information defines the government in their response, and this makes sense to a degree, Diehl argues, "International inspectors have reported no evidence that Iran  has received supplies from Venezuela, though that would be a violation of U.N. sanctions. But Noriega points out that the United States and European Union have already blacklisted an Iranian-owned Venezuelan bank for supporting the Iranian nuclear program and that the two countries have signed an agreement to collaborate in the nuclear industry." Although I don't know all the details, I agree with Diehl, I think that acting only once we can actually see consequences could be a huge weakness, but I also believe that taking actions against the president of another country based on partially unofficial information could be hazardous for our reputation as a country.