A Blast from the Past

Picture Russians parking nuclear weapons in Cuba within vastly closer striking distance of the United States. Would Kennedy take a strong stand? Can you picture the aerial photographs? For history buffs or those old enough to remember, the 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis almost put the United States and the USSR in to an armed conflict as Soviet nuclear-tipped missiles were placed inside Cuba, clearly aimed at U.S. targets. After a U.S. blockade and some nasty escalating rhetoric, Russia’s leader, Nikita Khrushchev, finally backed down and withdrew the missiles.

Except this time, it’s not President John F. Kennedy, it’s ailing brother Ted… and the President is Barack Obama. And it’s not Soviets; it’s just another version of that same regime – garden variety neo-Russians. You see there are really long, military runways in Cuba, just perfect refueling stops for Russian strategic bombers, which are fully “nuclear bomb or missile” capable. Fiction? A nostalgic romp of a film director thinking about another “what if disaster” movie?

This is 2009! The March 14^th CNN.com: “Russia expressed interest in using Cuban airfields during patrol missions of its strategic bombers, Russia's Interfax news agency reported. ‘There are four or five airfields in Cuba with 4,000-meter-long runways, which absolutely suit us,’ Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev told Interfax… Zhikharev, who is the chief of staff of the Russian Air Force's long-range aviation, said, ‘If the two chiefs of state display such a political will, we are ready to fly there.’”

But if any reason that doesn’t work out, we always have Venezuelan President Hugo “Mr. Love” Chávez offering the Russians a military airfield, on La Orchila island in the same neighborhood, for those “temporary” stopovers. Funny how having an enemy like the U.S. can galvanize local sentiments around a popular autocrat trying desperately to distract his people from watching the failed policies of oil-driven muscle flexing, when oil prices have fallen so low and the local economy makes “merely bad” a desirable long term goal.

The cabal, even without oil, still seems to walk in lockstep. Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and Bolivia don’t seem to like Americans these days. Same old, same old. Like there’s not enough tensions in the world or seemingly unsolvable impasses and colossal issues to deal with. We need even more?!

I’m Peter Dekom, and I thought you might want to know.