Ed Morrissey wonders if Chavez is essentially admitting an alliance with terror group FARC. The very day after Columbians killed FARC’s second-in-command, Chavez has moved ten of his battalions to the Columbian border. He’s threatening war.

President Hugo Chavez on Sunday ordered 10 battalions of troops to the border with Colombia after Colombia’s military killed a top rebel leader.

Chavez told his defense minister: “move 10 battalions for me to the border with Colombia, immediately.” He also ordered the Venezuelan Embassy in Colombia closed and said all embassy personnel would be withdrawn.

Now word comes that Ecuador is stepping up its aggression.

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa withdrew his government’s ambassador in Bogota, Colombia, and ordered troops to the country’s border following a Colombian raid against leftist rebels inside Ecuador…

“I put Venezuela on alert, and we will support Ecuador in any circumstance,” Chavez said Sunday on his weekly talk show “Alo Presidente,” or “Hello, President.”

“We don’t want war, but we will not allow the North American empire — which is the master — and its sub-President [Alvaro] Uribe and the Colombian oligarchy to divide, to weaken us. We will not allow it.”

Smart moves? No. Columbia’s government in Bogota is openly backed by the United States, and any attacks by Venezuela or Ecuador could pit those nations against Columbia and the world’s only superpower. As Morrissey writes:

If those battalions move across the border, Chavez had better expect a volley of cruise missiles at his command and control centers. The US will not allow Chavez to topple the elected government in Colombia. It would probably provide the only possible reason Washington would use military force against Chavez, and even this skeptical Congress would have little choice but to support the defense of an American ally under attack from a hostile nation.

Correct. Regardless of how much our military may be stretched, rest assured we would provide Venezuela with what would be a much-deserved ass-whooping. Would Chavez really want to provide the Bush Administration with a viable reason to hit him?