Posted on 07/21/2008 5:48:03 AM PDT by yankeedame
21/07/2008 11:13 MOSCOW, July 21, 2008
(RIA Novosti) - Russian combat aircraft could return to Cuba in a bid to counter U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Central Europe, a Russian daily reported on Monday.
Moscow has strongly opposed the possible deployment by the U.S. of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and an accompanying radar in the Czech Republic as a threat to its national security. Washington says the defenses are needed to deter a possible strike from Iran, or other "rogue" states.
"While they are deploying the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, our strategic bombers will already be landing in Cuba," a high-placed military aviation source told the Izvestia newspaper.
Russia's Tu-160 (Blackjack) and Tu-95 (Bear) strategic bombers are both capable of reaching Cuba.
However, while the source admitted that the possibility of Russian bombers being stationed in Cuba was for now just a hypothetical possibility, he also noted that the rumors had not appeared from out of thin air.
At the same time, Leonid Ivashov, the former head of the Russian Defense Ministry's department for international cooperation, and currently president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, told Izvestia that Cuba could be used as a refueling stopover for Russian aircraft rather than as a permanent base.
In October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis saw a tense standoff between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. when Soviet missiles were stationed in Cuba. As the world held its breath, President John F. Kennedy opted to launch a blockade of Cuba rather than invade, as some American military commanders wanted. The crisis was resolved after 12 days when the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, backed down and ordered the missiles removed.
Must be an old, albeit accurate, photo...no flag pin.
Dear Russia,
The Cold War is over. You lost.
Love, Uncle Sam
Did Raul say it was OK for Russia to do this?
Let ‘em do it and bomb Miami and see what happens...
The Russians are our *friends*! The Russians are....
Then why the need for missiles on her border?
Tyndall AFB in Florida is where F-22 pilots are trained (325th Fighter Wing, IIRC). Just sayin’...
i’ve never understood the russian objections to a missile shield.
are they saying,
we have the right to kill you?
a missile shield is defensive, not offensive.
“our strategic bombers will already be landing in Cuba”
And the first pilot to fly one to Florida will receive a Million dollar reward.
The MEssiah will allow it.
And Obama wanted to look like JFK. I guess he will fail on this one.
“are they saying,
we have the right to kill you?”
In a word, yes. They also don’t want the missile shield in place because that would render the missile tech they are selling to Iran et al. in the ME useless, which would hurt arms sales. That is the real issue...
that’s the way i see it.
it’s comparable to the democrat push to get guns from civilians.
their judges and courts let criminals and gangs, protected by racial political correctness,
run riot over the cities,
killing innocents.
and then the democrats are offended that some people want guns to protect themselves.
That’s OK. I think they should bomb Virginia first, then we’ll see what happens. ; )
They still have nukes, silly. It doesn't mean they are going to win the Cold War, though. I would classify them more as a "Rogue Nation" kind of threat, these days. When we say "Rogue Nation", we are usually talking about Iran or the Norks, but the same reasoning applies to the Russkies.
So do we. So I guess to be on the safe side they need to put their own missile defense in Cuba?
If they think it would be to their advantage, they should. But we don't aim our missiles over the Southern pole, so that would not be a logical location.
If they want to invest in a anti-missile system for one of their northern islands, that might make some sense, assuming they think we are liable to nuke them. It is hard to think of a scenario where that would come about, but it's their money...
Death to the Castro brothers!
Death to KGB Putin and his Chekist regime!
Two wars at a time please.
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