Disaster drill illustrates new approach to Cuba

Disaster drill illustrates new approach to Cuba

www.miamiherald.com

About 150 U.S. and Cuban troops worked side by side last week, testing collaboration across a minefield that has long divided the Cold War adversaries.

A Cuban Army helicopter flew over this Navy base and dropped 500 gallons of saltwater on burning plywood to extinguish a simulated raging wildfire. American sailors crossed into Cuban-controlled turf to set up a mock triage center run by both nations' militaries, should catastrophe strike.

Nearly anywhere else, the event would have been a run-of-the-mill training exercise. And although U.S. forces at this remote base have engaged in the annual rite with the Cuban Frontier Brigade for more than a decade, the Bush administration forbade the disclosure of information.

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[edit on 21-7-2009 by grover]

...The bush administration forbade the disclosure...

So what else is new?

The fact that the Cubans and Americans have been cooperating for better than a decade is good news...American policy as it has stood for the past 50 years regarding Cuba has only served to prop up the Castro regime, not weaken it...it is only by opening door, not closing them that progress is made.

I am sure the decision not to disclose this was purely political since the old school Cuban refugee community is strongly Republician and would have been outraged by this...

detante.

www.miamiherald.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 21-7-2009 by grover]

reply to post by grover


It would seem obvious the best way to influence any country is to remain diplomaticly and economicly involved. Unless the government is so extreme, as with Iran or North Korea, where logicly it becomes impossible to have any reasonable discussion about policy, economics, or politics. Our impact on the Cuban system would have been far more effective if we just stayed openly connected. You don't defeat a country by the traditional methods of war. When a force knows it's under assault, they respond by putting their guard up. The US also sent covert teams to attack Cuba over the decades by destroying crops and industries. Really dumb idea. You "defeat" them by the power of Pepsi and Microsoft.