Cuban Missile Crisis

Monday morning I ran into someone I know because he also walks a dog. We only know each other because we both have and walk dogs.  Every once in a while we run into each other and have a fascinating conversation.

I've been wondering what people at the time thought of the Cuban Missile Crisis. When I was in school, my focus was on school. I was going massively into debt, this was supposed to change my life, this was my focus. I did care about politics, but I had a job and I had school and they were my priority. When Karen's parents were in school during the Cuban Missile Crisis, their focus was on school. So who to ask? He was four at the time and his dad was in the CIA. They lived in Florida. He remembers asking his dad about it and his dad's response. 

He blew my mind. I think I may have read about this or was told this but then completely forgot it. The US had missiles in Turkey, which was a bigger deal in some ways than Russia having missiles in Cuba. 

Russia having missiles in Cuba was directly the result of our having missiles in Turkey. 

Finally, it didn't matter that they had missiles in Cuba. (WHAT???) If we got hit with nuclear weapons in 20 seconds it wasn't going to be that much worse than being hit in 2 minutes. (!!!!!!)

The whole thing was politics and it was all on tape and it was reported in The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/01/the-real-cuban-missile-crisis/309190/
ok dang, play with my head

There is a video of a Ukrainian soldier shooting down a Russian cruise missile with a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile. Ukraine has been lobbying for more sophisticated, modern anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems. After the latest attacks Biden has said new systems are on their way. Meanwhile, the first to arrive will be Germany's new IRIS-T. The system's radar is very sensitive and will detect low-flying missiles. Ukraine is also getting the Norwegian NASAMS which, like the IRIS-T, take multiple sources of information and integrates them to track a missile it can't even see yet. There are large stocks of them and Ukrainians have already been trained to operate them. When Ukraine has the IRIS-T its rate of shooting down Russian cruise missiles will improve. 

Nissan said it would pull out of Russia, booking a loss of $686 million. It is selling all of its shares of its Russian unit for one euro. It did make the contract give it the right to buy its shares back within six years. 

Cars but not trucks can cross the Kerch bridge. Crimean authorities asked residents to not use the bridge unless absolutely necessary, because of its limited capacity. Experts aren't sure it is safe to drive across anyway. It will take months to repair. 


My very best to you.