A Russian warship in Cuba?  We have not seen that for 20 years or since the collapse of the USSR.

What is a Russian warship doing in Havana harbor?

The answer is simple:  Putin, and much of the world, see the US in decline.  They see President Obama as weak.

We hear that Russia is going a lot farther, as reported in Fausta's Bog:  

"Russia is planning to expand its permanent military presence outside its borders by placing military bases in a number of foreign countries, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.  

Shoigu said the list includes Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, the Seychelles, Singapore and several other countries. 

“The talks are under way, and we are close to signing the relevant documents,” Shoigu told reporters in Moscow."

As any young recruit will tell you, there is very little military value to a Russian base in Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua.   They are not a military threat to the US.  We could take out those bases quickly in any war.

The real value is psychological, or further indication that Russia is challenging The Monroe Doctrine and getting away with it.

The "yes we can screamers" will go out of their way to tell us that the US has no right to keep Russia from opening bases wherever they choose to do so.  

The rest of us, as well as much of the world, will see it as US weakness or another indication that President Obama has abdicated as my good friend Barry Casselman wrote yesterday:

"It is now becoming very clear that the true legacy of President Barack Obama’s terms in the White House
might not be his disastrous “Obamacare” legislation that was costumed as reform. Instead, Mr Obama might
be remembered as the first modern president to abdicate. That is, to abdicate the role of the United States in the world.

The latest announcement that Secretary  of Defense Chuck Hagel proposes to cut back the U.S. military to
pre-World War II levels is only the latest evidence in a relentless pattern of the Obama government to
change our relationships of world alliances, withdraw from world conflicts, and ignore global security threats."

Last, but not least, I hope that someone in the media will ask Secretary Clinton about the status of "the reset.."   Of course, we hear that Secretary Clinton does not take a lot of questions from the media.  She is doing her "kids tour" with the help of Univision!

P. S. You can my chat with military historian Barry Jacobsen here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.