Russian Warships in Cuba

Recently Russia has been making their presence known in the Western Hemisphere. Russian warships have been making their way for Cuba plying off from the Panama Canal. Is this a threat to the United States? U.S. military commander for the region, Adm. James Stavridis, as well as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, don't think so. With Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin obviously irritated with the U.S.'s support for the former Soviet republic Georgia, Washington may want to be a bit more precautions about this situation.

The Russian-Cuban alliance is nothing new. These two countries supported each other throughout the World War II and Cold War era, and have recently rekindled their alliance. It seems like Russia is making an attempt to show the U.S. that they have a presence near the country, and in regions where U.S. forces normally have control. It seems as though Putin is somewhat wanting to reinstate Russia's image similar to what it was during the Soviet Union era. He should've been smart enough to know that invading another country would be seen as unacceptable by the U.N. before he decided to invade Georgia this past August.

As part of an American humanitarian aid mission, due to Russia's invasion of Georgia, the U.S. sent a state-of-the-art warship into the Black Sea which highly angered Russians. It's ridiculous that Putin would look at this as an arrogant move by the U.S. Does he really think that Russia's acts against Georgia were justifiable? Obviously, for some reason or another he doesn't think that there was anything wrong with it, and that no one should offer support to the much smaller Georgia. Russia's move against Georgia this past summer was very Hitler-esque.

At any rate, the recent Russian naval activity doesn't seem to be much of a concern to Washington. Adm. James Stavridis said, "They pose no military threat to the U.S.," in an e-mail to the Associated Press. They don't think that Russia and Venezuela intend on joining forces in a seriously meaningful military way. Hopefully they are right and this is just Russia making a brief visit to the area, with no intention on engaging with the U.S. in a military fashion. Peace between the U.S. and Russia will always be the more desirable for thing both countries, as well as the rest of the world. Regardless of what Russia's intentions are on visiting Venezuela and Cuba, I really think that precautions are always necessary when a "potential enemy" has suddenly begun to make their presence known, so close to home.