Russian warships together with a nuclear submarine just
left Cuba after a visit. This is rebuilding old ties between Russia and
Cuba. Russia can play the same game as the USA in East Asia. Russia is
displaying hard power, while China goes for soft power.
In
today's military situation, even without stationing missiles close to
USA shores, as was done by Russia in 1962 during the missile crisis,
striking the USA today across thousands of miles is still a piece of
cake. And nuclear submarines can also get just as close to strike the
USA as well, without having missiles in Cuba itself to do it.
Robot
soldiers is now reported to be something real and happening. In time to
come, war will take on a different perspective, with aircraft carriers
and support warships losing importance. Instead of sending fighter jets
on board aircraft carriers and travelling thousands of miles in order to
do battle, the risk is that such an arrangement is almost a sitting
duck for hypersonic nuclear missile strike from thousands of miles away.
Cheaper, better and faster takes on a totally new meaning.
Anonymous
PS. The Cuban Crisis was started by the Americans placing nuclear weapons in Turkey. Russia replied by placing nuclear weapons in Cuba. It ended when the Americans pulled out nuclear weapons in Turkey.
Turkey is a NATO member since 1952 and also interested in joining BRICS. That is not a good idea for BRICS, although Turkey did not join the sanctions against Russia, which would still qualify Turkey for membership. That it hosted nuclear weapons in the 1960s is testament to its loyalty to NATO. I believe those nukes are still in Turkey and never pulled out.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Turkey, like India, is just playing musical chairs between NATO and BRICS. Therefore, Turkey is not a trustworthy country to be admitted into BRICS, only good for Christmas dinner tables. Who knows which side Turkey will bend towards after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan steps down? Just look at the Philippine as an example, being a puppet of the USA deep inside its DNA.
Turkey is an important member of NATO, because of its geographical position and the USA will not let it loose. It holds the key to the Black Sea, controlling the Bosphorus or Straits of Istanbul connecting Asia and Europe and is a critical passage for international maritime trade. The USA, as leader of NATO, by definition, controls this critical waterway, just like the Panama Canal and Suez Canal, all critical choke points in the event of conflict. Do not be fooled also by claims that the Panama Canal is under Panamanian Government control and the Suez Canal under Egyptian control. That is just pulling wool over unsuspecting eyes.
However, countries are now looking at opening up alternative routes in Nicaragua to bypass the Panama Canal and Iraq is looking at a land route leveraging on the BRI extension to bypass the Suez Canal, and of course Thailand is interested in reviving the Isthmus of Kra project to bypass the Straits of Malacca. Russia is even exploring the Artic route with climate change making it more feasible to navigate with wider melting ice.