Each member of the various Venezuelan Armed Forces takes an oath to defend his or

her country. Militaries have been doing this all over our planet for thousands of years.

From a strategic point of view, Venezuelans need not be concerned about Panama,

Ecuador, Trinidad-Tobago, Guyana, countries in western Africa, Aruba, Bonaire or

Curacao. I very much doubt we will ever see an invasion of Spanish conquistadors

again. That would leave Colombia, Brazil and the United States. Colombia has its

own challenges, and I am not so sure that even if Colombia could afford a war they

would bother. What would they gain? Polluted air and water? A poorly functioning

electrical grid? Declining schools? They already have enough hard problems. Gran

Colombia might not be so bad an idea, considering the utter wreck Venezuela is. But

one would hardly need tens of thousands of combat deaths to achieve that. Likewise,

Brazil could really care less about Venezuela. As long as we quietly ruin ourselves

financially and do not challenge Brazil's dominance, our neighbors to the south have

many other concerns. Aside from the fact that the United States outnumbers us

twelve to one and could militarily crush us in minutes, only the most paranoid

amateurs would expect a country that is already over-extended in Asia to look for

more trouble. The United States cannot fix itself: how are they doing with rebuilding

New Orleans? Why would they add more troubles. Plus The United States makes

plenty of money selling us food - why would they give that up? When the United

States  starts building refineries to process Orinoco heavy crude then we might get

alarmed.   VENEZUELA HAS THREE REAL ENEMIES.