Brazil plans an armed force of 500,000

[Judi Lynn]

Brazil plans an armed force of 500,000
by Staff Writers
Sao Paulo (UPI) Apr 27, 2010

Brazil is on course to have a standing army of half a million men and women as part of its military regeneration program that includes commissioning a nuclear-powered submarine.

Plans for increasing the country's voluntary force from about 300,000 at present to 500,000 are being pursued as part of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's vision of Brazil asserting its presence as an influential regional power.

Lula has set sights on implementing the program before he hands over power to a new head of state, possibly his hand-picked candidate Dilma Rousseff, after the Oct. 3 general election.

Lula's plans are backed by the country's intelligentsia who are already behind the president's National Defense Strategy, unveiled in 2008.

More:
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Brazil_plans_an_armed_force_of_500000_999.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. And one of the main reasons? Lula da Silva stated, in another context, that the U.S. 4th Fleet,

mothballed since WW II and reconstituted by the Bush Junta in summer 2008 to further militarize the Caribbean, "is a threat to Brazil's oil." (Everybody south of the border knows that it is a threat to Venezuela's.) And it was Lula da Silva who proposed that South America create a common defense, in the context of their prototype common market, UNASUR. Latin America has no enemies except the U.S. And it is utterly dismaying that the Obama administration is INCREASING that threat, with the U.S. /Colombia military agreement for U.S. military use of SEVEN bases in Colombia and all civilian facilities and including full diplomatic immunity for all U.S. soldiers and U.S. 'contractors,' the new U.S. military bases in Panama and on the Dutch islands right off Venezuela's oil coast, the Pentagon's complicity in the rightwing coup in Honduras and the State Department's complicity in 'selling' a junta government in Honduras as 'democratic.'

It's no wonder that Lula da Silva wants Brazil to be able to defend itself. And it is appalling that the U.S. government is making that a necessity.

[protocol rv]

3. Silly, my dear Patriot

A bunch of extra soldiers won't do the trick - the US fleet has nuclear carriers and submarines. If they think they can stop the US fleet, they're peeing into the wind. To stop the US they would need airplanes and missiles, and lots and lots and lots of surface to air defenses, not a bunch of soldiers running around with rifles and tanks.

[Bacchus39]

4. the US and Brazil just signed a defense agreement

the US isn't Brazil's enemy no matter if you would like it to be.

[protocol rv]

2. Seems excessive

They can do with about 300,000 and a ready reserve of about 300,000 more, rather than 500,000 full timers. What are they going to do, invade Venezuela? :-)