October 22, 2007, - 10:42 am
45 Years Ago Today: Have We Lost Our Will to Survive?
By Debbie Schlussel
What happened 45 years ago today? Reader Diego Sevi not only remembers, he was in the midst of it, serving our country in Cuba as President John F. Kennedy addressed the nation about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Diego writes this:
Oct. 22, 1962. JFK was delivering a speech to the nation about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I was a 18 year old Marine sitting in a bunker on the fence line separating Cuba from Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.
I remember it well. Up to the point of JFK’s speech I had no idea we were on the verge of Nuke Warfare.
Jets screamed overhead and tons of tanks, men and material was being rushed to the lines.
My family in Florida was digging a bomb shelter. The churches were filled. Many thought the end had come.
Inside my bunker we had set up machine guns and Sarge was going from bunker to bunker assigning our fields of fire.
The Captain came in to the bunker and gave us a situational report then he asked,”Any Questions?”
Corporal Crowley spoke up, “Hey Cap, are we gonna get hot chow up here?”
Today, we don’t have a Cuban Missile Crisis. We have an Iranian Madman Nuclear (soon to be Missiles) Crisis. Ahmadinejad is today’s Castro (when Castro was at his peak), only a whole lot worse. He may not be 90 miles away, as Castro was (and remains). But with today’s technology, he’s actually a whole lot closer. Way too close for comfort.
So, will we be up to fighting today’s Hitler? Will we have the will that Diego Sevi and his fellow troops had to fight and do what they had to do? The will America had then?
Sadly, it doesn’t look promising. But Lindsay Lohan’s latest guy or rehab stint? Now that’s important.
Tags: America, Captain, Corporal, Crowley, Cuba, Debbie Schlussel What, Diego Sevi, Florida, Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Hitler, John F. Kennedy, Lindsay Lohan, President
I think the current situation is actually *more* serious than the Cuban missile crisis. Russian missiles in Cuba would almost certainly have been deterrable: Even in 1962, the U.S. had sufficient nuclear capacity to survive a first strike and retaliate–and Khrushchev had no desire to bring about the end of the world.
It is not at all clear, however, that the Iranian leadership, with their apocalyptic visions, is subject to deterrence.
photoncourier.blogspot.com on October 22, 2007 at 11:53 am