[Peace-discuss] Cuban missile crisis--its lessons--and its relations to Iraq

[charles joseph smith]

Bush should learn from President Kennedy and his resolution to the Cuban
missile Crisis so he can think twice about waging another full-scale war
on Iraq.

Kennedy's decision of not bombing the Cuban Island outright kept us from a
possible nuclear war, which enlightened the peace activists in the
U.S. Instead, Kennedy
ordered a military quarantine around the island to block Russian ships
bringing missiles to Cuba, which made everyone in the world nervous.
Later, it was found out that it was not just Fidel Castro who wanted
the missiles on the island. Nikita Krushchev, the Soviet leader at that
time, wanted them there to launch a missile attack against the U.S.,
because it was "cold war" time. (Cuba was on the side of the Russian
Communists.) Yet
even so, the quarantine was better than bombing the island itself.

Eventually, the crisis was resolved when Soviet leader Krushchev agreed
remove the missile emplacements from the island--if the U.S. agreed not to
invade Cuba, and remove the military quarantine. The U.S. agreed and the
crisis was over.

I understand Bush's uncontrollable attitude of warmongering, but a
laissez-faire mentality on Iraq is what I want, and this is what I really
feel.
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Charles Joseph Smith
URH, 101 Daniels Hall, 1010 W. Green St., #101
Urbana, IL 61801-3097
cjsmith2 at uiuc.edu
(217)332-2143
http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~cjsmith2/Charles_Home_Page.html
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