“Everybody to get from street!”
I was late to bed and early to rise but it could have been worse. Somebody triggered a backup alarm somewhere within earshot about 0:dark:30; it woke me. I folded the pillow over my head but I didn’t really sleep that well from then until the alarm.
Speaking of alarms…
I know where the Russians are. I want to know where American reporters are.
The Russian navy announced Carribean maneuvers with the Venezuelans about 2-1/2 months ago or during the height of the presidential campaign season. Nobody noticed, caught up as we were in the color barrier and the cost of Sarah Palin’s wardrobe. Speaking of color, a Cuban poll released this morning noted that no black man would ever ascend to a leadership position in Cuba.
Cuba? CUBA? The biggest foreign policy problem for the new administration is not Iran, Afghanistan, or Iraq. The biggest foreign policy problem is having missile-toting, nuclear-powered warships some 150 miles from my personal front door. (Remember the now-fabled “90 miles from the Bay of Pigs”? Regular readers may recall that my house in the Keys is about that distance away from Cuba).
Four Russian North Fleet and 12 Venezuelan ships lead by nuclear cruiser Peter the Great sailed today from Venezuela’s La Guaira port. The joint naval exercises began this morning and will last two days. You can read the entire story from Novosti, the English-language Russian News and Information Agency.
The Russian and Venezuelan ships-of-war will “practice sea rescue operations and maneuvering, and conduct live-firing artillery drills.” The public reason for the exercises is to plan terrorism and drug trafficking countermeasures but the exercises include aircraft, missiles, and 1,600 Russian marines. Russian strategic bombers overflew South America last month.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called the military cooperation “very useful.”
Indeed.
Russia’s entire economy is based on petrodollars. Oil has tanked and they are getting very nervous. When Russia or China (or both together) get nervous, we need to be very worried.
If that’s not enough to get your attention, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez believes he is the second coming of Castro. Except he may be nastier.
I remember the original Missile Crisis in the Carribean. “Duck and cover” is not a particularly useful exercise against nuclear attack but it is a great exercise to scare fifth-graders.
Here’s the bigger question: I googled and found that the closest American media to notice this is Voice of America. I wonder why no major American reporter seems to remember the last crisis and why no major American news organization is covering this one.
Peter the Great? PETER THE GREAT?!? I can’t believe the Russians would name a cruiser for a Tsar.
Don’t worry about PETER THE GREAT. There is no problem that BARACK THE MEDIOCRE cannot handle.
Dick, my previous comment on this did not go through, so I will attempt to redeaux it from mammary.
Diplomacy worked in the Cuban missile scenario because JFK was able to back it up with a serious threat of military retaliation. However, this diplomacy was not without some give and take, as the US also agreed to remove missiles from Turkey.
Kennedy was a democrat, but he was much more conservative than any of the rino polititians of today and certainly more than this current crop of social-liberal democrats who run that party. They have shown that they have no stomach for a war against Islamic terrorism…even one that prevents terrorism on these shores.
My point is that any diplomacy with the enemy does not work if it cannot be fortified by a kick-butt military threat. Case in point: *Iran*, which has become much less of a threat than three years ago because diplomatic conversation has always been mixed with a strong show of military presence/retaliation; and I fear that under the sadly apparent administration of Hussein Obama our military will be dismantled even moreso than under the tenure of Bill Clinton.
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1962 August 31: Senator Kenneth Keating tells the Senate that there is evidence of Soviet missile installations in Cuba
September 11: Soviet Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko, warns that an American attack on Cuba could mean war with the Soviet Union
October 14 : A U-2 flying over western Cuba obtains photographs of missile sites
October 14 – 17: The Joint Chiefs of Staff strongly advise Kennedy to make an air strike ( the discussions are referred to as the EX-COMM’s )
October 18: Gromyko assures Kennedy that Soviet Cuban aid has been only for the “defensive capabilities of Cuba.”
October 22: Congressional leaders are shown the photographic evidence of the Soviet missile Cuban installations and the President addresses the nation regarding the Cuban crisis
October 22: U.S. military forces go to DEFCON 3
October 23: Kennedy receives a letter from Khrushchev in which Khrushchev states that there is a, “serious threat to peace and security of peoples.” Robert Kennedy speaks with Ambassador Dobrynin
October 24: Soviet ships, en route to Cuba, reverse their course except for one. US Military forces go to DEFCON 2
October 25: JFK sends a letter to Khrushchev placing the responsibility for the crisis on the Soviet Union
October 26: Khrushchev sends a letter to President Kennedy proposing to remove his missiles if Kennedy publicly announces never to invade Cuba
October 27: An American U-2 is shot down over Cuba killing the pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson
October 27: A U-2 strays into Soviet airspace, near Alaska, and is nearly intercepted by Soviet fighters
October 27: Kennedy sends Khrushchev a letter stating that he will make a statement that the U.S. will not invade Cuba if Khrushchev removes the missiles from Cuba
October 28: Khrushchev announces over Radio Moscow that he has agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba
In return the US agrees to the withdrawal of US nuclear missiles from Turkey ending the Cuban Missile Crisis