Militaristic society

While many Cubans will be forced to do the goosestep with the military reserves, this article brings different oppinions on what the usual American defense think tank has been doing in regards to Cuba, underestimating the enemy.
Remember, Cuba was not a threat. Ana Belen Montes said it, and she was the star of the Cuban issues analyst in the Pentagon. Well, she was not only not even Cuban born, so her expertise was mainly theoretical.... but she was actually a kastroite spy on the nation's defense payroll.
Let's read Carmen Gentile's article line by line:

Cuban transitional leader Raul Castro has vowed to bolster the nation’s “combat capacity” under his watch by activating thousands of armed militiamen, special troops and reservists in preparation for a possible attack from the US.
raul kasstro is not a transitional leader, he is the successor of his brother, there's no transition of any sorts, forms or shapes in Cuba. The tyranny is not changing, transitioning or morphing into anything different, it's becoming only more brutal.
Raul Castro, the brother of Fidel and also the country's defense minister, made certain in his first public remarks since assuming the reins of the communist island in late July that the world knew the 47-year-old Castro “revolution” was firmly in tact.
Transitional leader anyone?
"I decided to substantially raise our combative capacity and readiness," Raul said in the pages of the official government newspaper Granma, where he made his first public comments since his brother stepped down reportedly due to a gastro-intestinal illness.
So far, observers and residents have reportedly noticed little change in the day-to-day politics in Cuba, other than the increased presence of additional troops and police on the streets of the capital Havana and throughout the country.
I thought I read "transitional leader" at the beginning!
The 75-year-old Raul, who helped his 80-year-old brother lead the Cuban revolution in 1959, said it was “not my intention to exaggerate the danger,” though stressed that his administration would not be cowered by Washington's “interventionist policy,” referring to the recent US government report detailing the Bush administration's plan for assisting Cuba in the event of a future democratic transition.
We all know that the U.S. Goverment has banned exiles from taking part in any military action against the Cuban tyranny, and that the Pentagon does not consider Cuba a military target, and that the White House doesn't condiser Cuba a priority. There's no pressure on Cuba's tyrants, there's a dry foot wet foot, there's nothing that indicates a commitment in helping the Cuban people to destroy the tyranny, there's only a lot of wording about helping "after a democratic government is installed", no words on how that's to be done, though.
Just how deep Raul’s commitment goes to repelling a possible US invasion is a matter of speculation among Cuba experts and exiles. While the White House maintains it is not interested in using military force to promote change in Cuba, officials in Havana maintain they are prepared for the event - just in case.
That's what I said...
Some analysts stand by the theory that Raul has the full backing of the military due to his long tenure as defense minister, though others surmise there could be a power struggle once Fidel dies and Raul is forced to stand alone.
The possible dissenters have been eliminated in the Cuban armed forces.
Brian Latell, a former national intelligence officer for Latin America from 1990-1994 and author of a Raul Castro biography, surmised that the real reason behind Raul's decision to ensure that Cuba was combat-ready was to make sure a transition would go unchallenged at home.
“Those additional troops aren’t out there to prevent against a US invasion. They’re there to make sure that the transition holds,” Latell told ISN Security Watch.
What transition? it's a succession. Like in a communist monarchy, see North Korea, Kim Il Sung died, and his son got the power, easy and smoothly. The same happened in Syria and in the old crusty Soviet Union for more than 70 years.
“They don’t want any disturbances on the streets,” he said, speculating that Raul also likely increased the number of undercover police and intelligence agents in the field.
Transition, right?
Just exactly what moves the interim Cuban leader has remained clouded in mystery. Officials at the Pentagon would not speculate on the record about Cuba’s military preparedness since Raul took over, though noted that relations between US forces in Guantanamo and the Cuban army stationed nearby have continued to be “cordial and professional” since Fidel stepped down.
What moves "the interim Cuban leader" - I call him vice-tyrant-in-chief is to rule the island with an iron fist without the benefit of a silk glove. Where's the cloud of mystery here?
What is known about Cuba’s current combat readiness is that its forces are far fewer than they were during the heyday of the Soviet Union, when their ranks numbered an estimated 200,000 and were active in overseas operations like the war in Angola in 1975.
Really? All men from 16 to 65 are part of the reserves, and the reserves in Cuba can be activated with a knock on your door, and suddenly you have a few million men wearing uniform. They also have militias, university students are mandatorily subjected to military training -both sexes- and there's a draft system in place. Not to talk about that Cuba produce assault rifles and ammunition, just go and google out the page of the Cuban Defense Ministry, or Minfar.
Today, without significant foreign subsidies, Cuba’s troop strength is believed to be somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000, according to the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London and others.
Significant subsidies come every single day from China, Venezuela, Iran, and many other countries and private supporters. The amount of troops is far bigger than those figures, which are fuzzy math at its best. Take a look at google Earth and locate military bases in Cuba, then tell me if you can run them with 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers. Besides, the Cuban population could outnumber them easily and the government is afraid of that, therefore the forces are much bigger, and this is not counting the troops of the Ministry of the Interior, which are numerous.
“Cuba went through a terrible shock after the Soviet Union collapsed,” said Latell.
Have you heard of money and weapons coming straight from China and Venezuela?
The Revolutionary Army (Ejercito Revolucionario) is comprised primarily of armor and artillery units that military analysts note lack significant training and are not capable of mounting effective operations above the battalion level.
Says who?
As for the country’s militia, it remains a part-time force that is equipped with light arms issued only for specific occasions. That's call reserve forces infantry, isn't it? Analysts at Globalsecurity.org in Alexandria, Virginia, note that the militia is not “capable of sustained combat” though they are “effective for controlling or coercing the general public,” echoing Latell's sentiments.
Says who?
The country’s navy is said to be comprised of nearly two dozen ships in the Osa-I and II and Komar class, with a range of 800 nautical miles and armed with Styx missiles that have a range of 18 miles (28.8 kilometers) and carry a 1,100 lb warhead. Cuba is believed to have three submarines once capable of operating within the Caribbean basin, though are thought to be inoperable now.
I wouldn't bet on that.... they can seem inoperable, have you hear of "decoy" or about the "potemkin strategy"?
As for its air force, the country is said to have less than two dozen operational MiG fighter jets and little in the way of fighter pilot training, leaving the country particularly vulnerable to air assaults.
Really? I just counted a bunch more planes on google earth. Do you really think that all of them are in the open? If I were raul I would have put some old equipment on the tarmac, he loves that "potemkin" game, keeping the others hidden, just for the fun of reading one of these experts opinion's during my coffee break!
“I suspect that some of the equipment [in the Cuban military] is outdated and acquiring replacement parts is probably a problem,” Mark Falcoff, a resident scholar on the Americas at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, told ISN Security Watch.
Have you heard of China and Bielorussia? Ukraine? They produce parts and weaponry, and they love the smell of the American dollar in kasstro's piggy bank....
“The Cuban army no longer has the economic resources to be a world-class army” capable of repelling a foreign invasion, particularly one from the US,” said Falcoff.
Maybe the Cuban army is not able to stop a full force American invasion, but it's being said that is not gonna happen. As per the economic resources, the Cuban army owns Cuba, and owns the tourism industry and the whole national budget is at the raul castro disposal to support the army. Cubans go hungry everynight, but the army has all the resources needed. Also, who said that raul will try to repell an American invasion by using conventional warfare? The equation is more complicated now, and among his allies there are a few pretty dangerous, like Iran and a whole gaggle of Islamofascist and guevarist terror bands which could attack from within the U.S. Have you heard Latin street gangs who are combat experienced, like la Mara Salvatrucha, which hate the U.S., and love che guevara? Do you think that there's no kasstrist influence on them as terror spearheads? There are also heavily armed and very violent Mexican gangs, not famous for their love for America, which are operational in many States and across the border. Those can be activated by kasstrist angents. We also have narcoterrorist kingpings whose groups where the brainchild of guevara. He infamously said that the strategy was to destroy America's youth. Do we live in the same country?
Other analysts like Globalsecurity.org Director John E Pike said that with what limited economic resources Cuba currently has it may now be in the market for new arms for its additional militiamen, though its old stockpiles should be sufficient to arm its much smaller force compared to the army it manned prior to the Soviet collapse.
“I think they were reasonably equipped 20 years ago,” said Pike. “They haven’t put a lot of wear and tear on their weapons” in the last two decades.”
This is more reasonable as an approach.
Meanwhile, the AEI scholar noted that Raul might in some ways secretly welcome a limited US invasion, as it would “rally support for the regime” among those that might still be on the fence about his ability to govern as well as his brother.
“Ideally, Cuba wants to be seen as sufficiently dangerous so that we don’t invade, but not so dangerous so that we will invade,” he added.
This is a clever assertion.
Though the Cuban military may lack the might it once boasted, it has taken on additional domestic duties since the early 1990s and now controls large portions of the country’s economy.
The Cuban military runs many of the country’s most important sectors such as tourism, portions of the agriculture industry like sugar, areas of mining, as well as parts of its retail industry. The military is said to control about 90 percent of the country’s exports, making Cuba’s generals also the country’s most prominent business leaders.
Doesn't this contradict all that was said before?
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba was forced to fend for itself following decades of subsidies totaling US$19 billion annually. It was then that the military started taking over certain sectors of the economy.
In Cuba, “the military’s job is to make money,” Frank Mora, a professor at the National College in Washington, told The Miami Herald in a recent article.
“Power in Cuba is not just who holds the guns, although that helps. More important is who controls what is profitable.”
True. Don't forget that today's Cuba is a militaristic society.