A U.S. Navy submarine has arrived in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a show of force as a fleet of Russian warships gather for planned military exercises in the Caribbean.
U.S. Southern Command said the USS Helena, a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, pulled into the waters near the U.S. base in Cuba on Thursday, just a day after a Russian frigate, a nuclear-powered submarine, an oil tanker and a rescue tug crossed into Havana Bay after drills in the Atlantic Ocean.
The stop is part of a “routine port visit” as the submarine travels through Southern Command’s region, it said in a social media post.
Other U.S. ships also have been tracking and monitoring the Russian drills, which Pentagon officials say do not represent a threat to the United States.
IDK what the thinking is with this, but “let’s frighten the US by sending 4 ships over nearby to them after losing 29 of our vessels in a war with a country 15 times smaller, that doesn’t have a navy” seems like a non starter of an idea. Once people reach adolescence, this “I’m not touching you I’m not touching you, are you uncomfortable” crap just comes across as a highlight of how carefully you are adhering to the boundary you are walking up to so aggressive-looking-ly.
If that even is the thinking. IDK, maybe they are just doing exercises, and there’s no particular intent behind it and the US press is writing a bunch about it just because it is notable that it’s happening.
Russian media: “The powerful and manly Russian Navy has sailed right up to the cowardly Amerikkka NATO degenerates, and they did nothing! They fear the might of Russia, just as their mercenaries in Ukraine fear it! All hail the T-14!”
Etc, etc.
Dude it’s fuckin weird
I watched some videos from one of those pro-Russian military Youtube channels, and the whole thing is two years worth of uninterrupted victory, steady forward progress, missions accomplished and disasters for Ukraine. And yet, there’s no acknowledgement that if everything had gone as they said the Russian armed forces would have swept across Ukraine, on through Europe, and circled the globe 5 or 6 times by now, with how much progress they have made… but that in reality the eastern front line has in that time not gone anywhere.
I think Russia is pretty good at creating believable bullshit (they are certainly good at influencing elections), but when faced with an actual problem that objectively exists in the real world, it just looks hilarious to see them attacking it for 2 years continuously by simply insisting with absolute passionate confidence that they are solving it better than anything you’ve ever seen, and they’re on the verge of yet another great and crushing success, as everyone can see, just watch.
It’s brinkmanship. the Russians are trying to invoke the cuban missile crisis. AFAIK, they’re supply ships bringing stuff to Cuba; (but also “recruits” from Cuba.). But a large part of it is definitely meant to up the anty on all the “if you don’t stop supplying weapons I’ll use nukes” rhetoric.
Trying to do brinksmanship only works if there is believability to the idea of you crossing the brink. Putin who doesn’t want anyone to be allowed to sit near him, constantly asks his friend-countries if they’ve been hanging out with NATO behind his back, and managed to fuck up one war with one tiny country this badly with the whole weight of the biggest nation in the world behind the effort, is very different from Khrushchev overseeing the cold war and the development of the nuclear arsenal and directly challenging the Cuba blockade, banging his shoe on the podium at the UN and screaming “We will bury you!” Putin may view the threat that he will attack the US as believable, but I do not think that anyone in the US or Russian government considers it a strong possibility and like I said I think the “not touching you” game (if that is in fact what he’s doing) just makes him look weaker to both parties TBH.
(I hadn’t even really considered the death sentence that is attacking the US with nukes as on the table for Russia; the nuclear option I was envisioning was attacking Ukraine and gambling that the rest of the world would be so against starting WW3 that they could get away with it.)
You’re not wrong. At some point Putin is gonna have to grab the other guy and jump off that ledge, just to prove he would.
Which is the problem with brinksmanship.
“Now if you’re gonna stab, stab, Trigger. Don’t, you know… dance.”
Ukraine does have a navy. It doesn’t currently have any ships, just boats and USVs, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.
Hm… I thought that the Ukrainian navy was pretty much fucked as a branch of service after the fall of Crimea – most of the naval vessels captured by Russia, other countries talking about giving them some ships but not following through (or not yet), naval drones being piloted by members of the GUR instead of by someone affiliated with “Navy of Ukraine.” I sort of put all that stuff in a category with airplanes being flown by the army of a country that doesn’t have a dedicated air force – like yes they have boats but they don’t have a navy. IDK, I don’t know the formal status and I could be wrong in my thinking; that was just how I was looking at it.
If they kept those 4 near Ukraine, they’d be sunk by now too 🤣
By attempting a dick waving contest they are making sure they don’t end up in Davy Jones Locker.