The Cuban Missile Crisis, redux?

Older readers will remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of all-out nuclear war in 1962. It was defused when the latter nation withdrew the missiles it had placed in Cuba.

It seems there may once more be a threat to the United States from a nation basing its missiles in another country. German newspaper Welt Online reports (link is to the original German document - for an English translation, click here) that Iran may be planning to place medium-range ballistic missiles in Venezuela, from where they would have sufficient range to target most of the southern, central and eastern United States. Apparently an agreement was signed by Venezuela's President Chavez and Iran's President Ahmadinejad in October this year, providing for a jointly operated military base on Venezuelan soil and the joint development of ballistic missiles.

This comes on the heels of revelations about Venezuela's hitherto-clandestine nuclear program; its purchase last year of 1,800 SA-24 shoulder-fired ground-to-air missiles (vastly more than its armed forces can logically or rationally use - there are fears that Chavez may supply some to terrorist movements or drug cartels for use against US interests or forces); and its increasing alignment with states and movements supporting or engaging in terrorism.

Given those facts and events, the prospect of a Venezuela equipped with medium-range ballistic missiles, and perhaps warheads containing weapons of mass destruction to put on them, isn't one that fills me with joy. Do you suppose that President Obama will be as forceful as his predecessor during the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy, in dealing with this problem?

(If you think he will, there's this bridge in Brooklyn, NYC I'd like to sell you. Cash only, please, and in small bills . . . )

This situation will bear watching very carefully.

Peter