An internal Army Reserve message has put a four-month window on the Pentagon’s latest contingency planning in the Caribbean.
The document says several kinds of Reserve units could be needed by U.S. Southern Command in 90 to 120 days. The list includes military police, battlefield medical teams, engineers and the logistics commands needed to sustain a major operation.
The memo does not name Cuba, and no deployment orders have been issued. Multiple U.S. officials nevertheless told CBS News that the request is connected to continuing military planning focused on the communist island.
President Trump had delivered an unmistakable message about Cuba at the United Nations just three days earlier:
That speech now looks even more consequential.
CBS News reports that Army Reserve headquarters sent the request to subordinate commands last week and required responses by September 25.
The military wanted to know whether six types of formations could be made available to SOUTHCOM. Among them were a medical brigade, a forward surgical detachment, a military police brigade, an engineer battalion, a combat sustainment support battalion and an expeditionary sustainment command.
Those are not abstract desk-planning categories. They are the units that provide security, detention capability, emergency surgery, construction, fuel, transportation, maintenance and theater-wide logistics.
The request does not specify troop numbers, a destination or the mission those forces might support. Nothing in the document establishes that President Trump has decided to launch an operation.
The defined window shows that the machinery required to support one is being examined now.
President Trump also used the U.N. stage to lay down a broader rule for America’s own hemisphere:
The administration has been tightening economic and diplomatic pressure on Havana while warning that hostile powers will not be allowed to build a stronger foothold 90 miles from Florida.
President Trump told the General Assembly that Cuba is under extraordinary pressure, predicted that its communist government will fall and said Secretary of State Marco Rubio is deeply involved in negotiations with Havana. Cuba’s delegation walked out during the speech.
The White House published the address with a pointed summary of the administration’s Western Hemisphere doctrine.
President Trump said the United States will confront threats before they are allowed to grow, use military power when necessary to protect vital national interests and prevent communist or hostile networks from gaining ground in the region. He coupled that warning with a direct promise that freedom is coming to Cuba.
The complete U.N. address shows how the Cuba warning fit inside a much larger declaration of American power:
Cuba has heard tough words from Washington before. This time, those words are arriving beside reports of reconnaissance around the island, earlier air-readiness measures and an Army request for the people and formations that would keep a real operation moving.
The 90-to-120-day language is not a countdown to war. It is a readiness window, and the distinction is important.
It is still a warning that Havana cannot afford to dismiss.
President Trump is pressing for a fundamental change in Cuba while keeping every option visible. Diplomacy may still produce that change peacefully.
If it does not, the United States is making sure the commander in chief has choices.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
The post JUST IN: Army Reserve Memo Signals Possible Cuba Operation Imminent appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.
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[H/T 100PercentFedUp]
