yarddog:
"If Castro thought he had the ability to capture Guantanamo he would have done it yesterday.
Of course there is really no comparison with Fort Sumter.
None at all." In fact, there are a number of historical analogies to Fort Sumter:
- British troops occupied New York for more than a year after Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown.
Americans made no efforts to dislodge the Brits by force.
- After 1781 British maintained several forts on US territory, in New York and Michigan, some until 1796 others until 1815.
These never became a casus belli for US Presidents.
- Communist Cuba has demanded for years that the US surrender Guantanamo Bay, and has refused to accept US lease payments.
But if the Communists were to assault Guantanamo, force its surrender and seize it, that would be an act of war, as certainly as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Confederate assault on Fort Sumter.
The fact is that the Confederacy had no lawful claim -- none -- to Fort Sumter, and their military assault on it was an act of war as certainly as any other such attack.