Iran & Venezuela unite against America:

The presidents of Iran and Venezuela launched construction of a joint petrochemical plant on Monday, strengthening an “axis of unity” between two oil-rich nations staunchly opposed to the United States.

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who both often rail against Washington, also signed a series of other deals to expand economic cooperation, ranging from setting up a dairy factory in Venezuela to forming an oil company.

“The two countries will united defeat the imperialism of North America,” a beaming Chavez told a news conference during an official visit to the Islamic Republic, which the United States has labeled part of an “axis of evil”.

Venezuela’s economy is falling apart, much like Iran’s, but that doesn’t make either one toothless by a long shot. They’re both arming up, largely with Russian help in Venezuela’s case, and they’re both in strategic positions to be able to bother us a great deal.

In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the axis here functions like the axis that the allies had to defeat 6 decades ago: It’s a military as well as economic and ideological bond. What I’m saying is, if we strike Iran, it’s not a stretch anymore to think that Chavez might try something in our hemisphere in retaliation. Not a direct attack on us; I don’t think he’s a complete fool. But he might try something against a key ally of ours, like Venezuela’s neighbor Colombia, a close strategic US ally and provider of about 4% of the oil we use everyday.

Chavez is clearly arming up for something and has been for years.