CBS News reported on Saturday that the US Military has been working to establish “the groundwork for potential action around Cuba.”
According to the report, CBS reviewed an internal US Army Reserve message sent to subordinate commands. The message requested an assessment on the feasibility of providing several types of units to US Southern Command within 90 to 120 days.
The message did not mention Cuba, but CBS said it spoke to US officials who said the assessment request is centered on the beleaguered Caribbean island nation off the coast of Florida. Southern Command’s “area of responsibility” comprises “31 countries and 12 dependencies and areas of special sovereignty” in Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.
The assessment request seeks to determine how quickly a combat sustainment support battalion, an engineer battalion, an expeditionary sustainment command, a medical brigade, a forward resuscitative and surgical detachment, and a military police brigade could be stood up. Together, these units would check a lot of invasion boxes, including logistics, transportation, maintenance, fuel and supplies, engineering, medical treatment, emergency surgery, security, detention, and law-enforcement support.
The report comes just days after President Donald Trump, during a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, vowed that Cuba “will fall”:
“[T]he situation in Cuba, where the communist regime is under great pressure, the biggest pressure they’ve ever been under. It’s an absolutely failed state. It’s failing like never before. And it will fall. Marco Rubio is handling a negotiation. He’s deep into negotiations with Cuba. Let’s see what happens. [We will] not allow a haven for foreign adversaries to threaten America on our own doorstep. It’s right at our doorstep,” Trump said.
During the same UN speech, Trump raised the possibility that he would have to “annihilate” Iran and also touted a new security arrangement with Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark. The Trump Administration has publicly committed to securing “Greater North America” and, based on its actions, also seems intent on curating a Greater Western Hemisphere.
Secretary of State and Acting National Security Director Marco Rubio has been “running Venezuela from afar” since the US attacked the country and abducted President Nicolas Maduro, and he will most likely become Cuba’s overlord if the US is able to conquer the island next. Rubio is of Cuban descent and part of the Cuban American political bloc in Florida that has yearned to destroy the government in Havana for decades.
On July 20, Rubio’s State Department published “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism.” The nearly 100-page report described the Cuban state as “the center of a vast hemispheric network” intent on destroying the United States and collapsing Western Civilization.
In August, POLITICO reported that US intelligence assets had descended on Cuba for apparent regime-change-oriented activities. The US has also placed Cuba under crushing economic sanctions and ramped up an oil embargo following the attack on Venezuela, causing rolling blackouts and a devastating humanitarian crisis.
