It is increasingly obvious that Venezuela has no interest in improving relations with the United States. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez seems determined to not only aggravate the U.S., but to build a global alliance to oppose American influence. And, as difficult as it may be to accept, his initiatives could do more damage than Americans would tend to believe.

Case in point: Iran, a nation located thousands of miles from Latin America, has become one of Venezuela’s closest allies. “We stand by Iran at every moment, in any situation,” vowed Mr. Chavez on his July visit to Tehran, where he received the golden High Medallion of the Islamic Republic from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Venezuela certainly provides Iran with plenty of political support, in direct opposition to the U.S. Mr. Chavez is a well-known and strident defender of Iran’s nuclear program. Venezuela, for example, was one of only three countries to oppose referring Iran to the United Nations Security Council during the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in February (the other two countries were Syria and Cuba).

In fact, Mr. Chavez seems to be doing all he can to oppose America’s policy of inhibiting nuclear proliferation. Recent events even suggest Mr. Chavez is actually trying to spread nuclear technology around the world. Most recently, he has supported suggestions to initiate a nuclear energy program by Mercosur, the South American trade bloc.

By all appearances, Mercosur is delighted with Venezuela’s agenda. The fact that it granted Venezuela membership status this past July, in spite of American concerns, is a clear sign of Venezuela’s growing global clout.

Economic ties have also blossomed between Tehran and Caracas. Iran’s state-owned oil company Petropars is said to be investing billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil and gas infrastructure—while many American and other international oil companies have been forced to accept huge tax increases and to relinquish majority control of their oil fields to Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. Hundreds of Iranian tractors are produced in Venezuela. Iran’s automobile corporation has plans to open a 5,000-vehicle-per-year factory near Caracas this November. Venezuela in turn has also agreed to share technology and jointly produce nearly a dozen products.

Venezuela has also thrown its weight behind Iran’s initiative to price oil in euros as opposed to dollars—a move widely seen as an attempt to weaken the influence of American investment banks and undermine the U.S. dollar’s role as a reserve currency.

Syria is another nation Venezuela has been courting, with its deputy foreign minister visiting Damascus last month. Other nations Venezuela has developed close relations with include China, Russia, Cuba, Bolivia, Zimbabwe and Belarus; nations that, if not full-blown enemies, certainly have no love for the U.S.

As recently as a decade ago, most of these unfriendly nations were of little or limited threat to the U.S. Yet today, that has changed. Tightening global oil supplies have recently driven oil prices to new records. As world oil demand has outpaced supply, the world’s oil-exporting nations have consequently become much more powerful global players. Even a mere suggestion that individual oil fields could be shut down can jump the price of crude. The most recent example was British Petroleum’s decision to temporarily shut down its Alaskan Prudhoe Bay oil field for maintenance, a decision that was blamed for causing oil to spike to almost $77 per barrel.

Since America is the world’s largest oil importer, it is very sensitive to oil price increases. The more dangerous concern, however, is whether America’s oil addiction will in the future make it vulnerable to coercion from oil-exporting nations.

The majority of the world’s major oil producers are countries unfriendly to America. Iran and Venezuela, two of the world’s top five oil exporters, would certainly not be counted among America’s friends. Yet, America relies on Venezuela as its fourth-largest source of crude. The rest of the world’s exporters are not much friendlier: Russia, Saudi Arabia (the world’s two largest exporters), Sudan, Nigeria, Algeria—the list of regimes that are oil-rich, but undemocratic, authoritarian or radical goes on and on. Even Canada, America’s largest oil supplier, may provide less oil to the U.S. in the future, as it increasingly looks to Asia as a way of diversifying its oil sales.

America is in a very vulnerable situation. It is being isolated from increasing numbers of its trade partners, especially those with strategic energy resources. Alarmingly, this trend is only accelerating.

The Bible speaks of a time when America will be besieged by its enemies. America’s over-reliance on foreigners for essential needs is a sign that time is drawing near.