Ninety Miles From Florida, We Are Sleepwalking Into Another War
The USS Nimitz is parked in the Caribbean. An aircraft carrier commissioned in 1975, according to U.S. Southern Command, has sailed into waters near an island roughly 90 miles from Key West, and the question worth asking is not what it is doing there. It is why we are pretending this is normal?
Southern Command’s official line, posted to X this week, talks about “stability” and “defending democracy.” The unofficial line came from President Trump on Wednesday, who told reporters Cuba is “on our mind.” That came hours after the Justice Department unveiled an indictment against former Cuban President Raul Castro for the 1996 downing of two civilian planes that killed four people. The timing? Cuba’s Independence Day.
Here is what makes the whole thing strange: we have already lived this movie. Iran. Venezuela. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters earlier this week that the country has its “hands full” trying to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which is one of the more remarkable understatements of the year. Somewhere between that crisis and the next one, a strike group sailed south.
According to a YouGov survey released May 6 and commissioned by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, 64 percent of us oppose a war with Cuba while only 15 percent support one. Among people who actually hold an opinion, opposition climbs to 81 percent. Independents oppose it 68 to 25, according to the same poll. A separate Marist Poll conducted January 12 and 13 found that 61 percent of Americans strongly oppose or oppose U.S. military operations in Cuba. These numbers are not close. They are a wall.
So why the carrier? The administration’s theory, as outlined in a Politico report this month, is that economic pressure will do the job warships do not have to. Since January, according to a Congressional Research Service brief published at Congress.gov, the administration has imposed more than 240 sanctions on Cuba and intercepted at least seven oil tankers bound for the island. Cuba’s energy minister said last week, as reported by Common Dreams, that the country has “absolutely no fuel” and “absolutely no diesel.” Power outages on the island are now daily. People in Havana are cooking over firewood.
That is the part nobody in Washington wants to discuss. A humanitarian crisis is unfolding 90 miles from our coast, and what happens next is not academic. If Cuba’s grid collapses entirely, the migration wave will not pause politely at the Florida Strait. If the Nimitz becomes more than a prop, we will own the consequences of whatever follows. And if a former dictator is indicted on a national holiday designed to wound a regime, we should at least be honest: this is political theater wearing a legal costume.
More than 30 House Democrats, led by Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois, sent a letter on May 12 calling potential military action “unlawful, deeply destabilizing, and catastrophic.” Senators Tim Kaine, Ruben Gallego and Adam Schiff have filed a war powers resolution. Even Senate Republicans, according to reporting in The Hill, have privately warned the president to slow down.
We have spent the better part of a year watching this administration choose which country to dismantle next. The Nimitz showing up in the Caribbean is not really a question for the president. It is a question for Congress. The Constitution still says they declare war, not him. We should make them remember it. Go beyond the headlines…
Fox News Poll: As economic pain deepens, disapproval of Trump hits new high
The countries rejecting ICE deportees
US aircraft carrier arrives in Caribbean amid tensions with Cuba
Walmart issues worse-than-expected outlook as high gas prices hit shoppers
Five Psychology Lessons That Will Curtail Your Anxiety
Timing Your Vitamin C Could Blunt A Cancer Risk Hidden In Your Dinner
You can now talk to your Gmail inbox
‘If you keep looking we will kill you’: death stalks those searching for Mexico’s disappeared
Latin America Faces ‘Hydrological Whiplash’ as Climate Risks Mount
