Besides malaria, Venezuela has also been in the news for epidemics of dengue. And then there's the disease we don't like to talk about - AIDS. Venezuela's response to things that are crippling and killing Venezuelans is we purchased T-72 tanks. These were introduced in 1970 and are older than I am. No T-90s for us! At the left is a Iraqi T-72 in happier days. To the right is one of thousands destroyed by American tanks and helicopters. Nowadays, T-72s cost about 9 million bolivars to buy and a little more to run. They are the weapon of choice of desperate and dying regimes in Libya and Syria to kill Libyans and Syrians. The good thing about those deserts    is T-72s don't ruin your roads and break your bridges as they do here. An armored blitzkrieg southward through the Orinoco delta or westward over the Andes is unlikely to make the Cavalry Hall of Fame. And for the billions spent a successful invasion of Guyana gets us zero pipelines, more electrical shortages and trillions more mosquitoes. Next time some mosquito or microbe wants to attack you personally, remind it of the awesome firepower of our main battle tanks. When our shoddily constructed buildings collapse in the next earthquake  crews inside tanks may be safe.