America’s troubles on the world stage were the result of being disliked – disliked because George W. Bush was such a terrible president. That’s what we were told. So why hasn’t a year of Barack Obama’s enlightened foreign policy leadership, promised as the antidote to Bush’s cowboy ineptitude, made the likes of Hugo Chavez less prone to delusional sabre rattling?

President Hugo Chavez ordered Venezuela’s military on Sunday to prepare for a possible armed conflict with Colombia, saying the country’s soldiers should be ready if the United States attempts to provoke a war between the South American neighbors.

“The best way to avoid war is preparing for it,” Chavez told military officers standing at attention during his weekly television and radio program.

Repeating an often-used military adage, he added, “If you want peace, prepare for war.”

Chavez told his supporters that President Barack Obama holds sway over Colombia’s government, and he cautioned the U.S. leader against using his allies in Bogota to mount a military offensive against Venezuela.

“Don’t make a mistake, Mr. Obama, by ordering an attack against Venezuela by way of Colombia,” he said.

It turns out that what we actually do is of little relevance to “world leaders” like this. We are a scapegoat. We are The Other upon which failing socialist dictators can direct the ire of the people in hopes that they might be distracted from their hungry bellies and diminishing freedoms – basically, from the inevitable mess created by a discredited ideology. Instead of operating under the delusion that Chavez is reacting to objective reality, we must realize that he will say things like this no matter what we do, nor who is president.

Does this mean we should just go around not caring who we cross or piss off? Of course not. The point is that we should focus on our national interest and not worry so much about why we are demonized, as if there were some way it could be stopped. So long as failing dictators need an enemy to rally against, we will be disliked. It’s a constant of international affairs, and therefore ought to be completely irrelevant to crafting policy.