Call it a fleet, a flotilla, an aircraft carrier strike group, or what it is, a belligerent embarrassment of gunboat diplomacy, but to invoke the archaic “armada” is to overlook Admiral Nelson of Trafalgar Square. Trump might as well dub his flagship Titannic. Go on Trump, do it.
That’s right, it was not Puerto Rico, but Costa Rica, whose congress approved the mobilization of 46 US Navy vessels in its harbors, including the billeting of 7,000 uniformed US Marines to conduct humanitarian and drug-war operations. Did permission come with conditions? It did, but ours, not theirs. Before the US is to visit Costa Rica with 200 helicopters and combat planes, we stipulated that “US personnel in Costa Rica shall enjoy freedom of movement and the right to engage in activities they may consider necessary to fulfill their mission.”
Opposition parties in Costa Rica complain that such a huge military fleet in their waters will be disproportionate to the requirements of fighting the drug trade, and appears to have its sights further ashore.
Meanwhile the US armada off the coast of Iran is being joined by Israeli warships. Fidel Castro wonders at the likelihood they’ll move any direction but escalation sooner than retreat with tail between their legs if Iran complies with the latest UN demands.
WASHINGTON DC- It’s not the “Department of Peace,” to contrast with the Department of Defense, although some detractors point out that we have the State Department for that, but visitors to DC will find in the NW corner of the National Mall, the US Navy has conceded a portion of its real estate adjacent the Lincoln Memorial for a US Institute of Peace. Dot org, not dot gov. And what do they mean by “Public Education Center?” It’s Pax Americana they’re institutionalizing, aka peacekeeping in the gunboat diplomacy sense of the word.
And sure enough, according to its website:
USIP has been operating on the ground in Iraq since 2004, working with Iraqis to reduce interethnic and interreligious violence, speed up stabilization and democratization, and reduce the need for a U.S. presence in Iraq.
Protests as US warship docks in Nagasaki What incredible arrogance and bad taste! This is your military and government, Americans! Look in the mirror and weep!