NICARAGUA: US Fourth Fleet Treads Fine Line

[nosmokes]

It seems to me that we(US) should have some way of delivering humanitarian aid and projecting the American image abroad that doesn't always involve uniforms and guns.The uniforms and guns just seems to add an ulterior motive whether one exists or not.
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original-ips

NICARAGUA: US Fourth Fleet Treads Fine Line

By José Adán Silva



BILWI, Nicaragua, Aug 20 (IPS) - The newly reactivated U.S. Fourth Fleet began its operations in Latin American waters with a humanitarian mission that made its first stop in Nicaragua, before heading on to six other countries of the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship of the Fourth Fleet of the U.S. Southern Command, anchored off Nicaragua’s Mosquito Coast in the Caribbean Sea on Aug. 11, carrying 1,600 people, including U.S. military personnel and public health workers as well as humanitarian workers from several countries. The ship will remain in Nicaraguan waters until Aug. 25.

According to Commodore Frank Ponds, the head of the Continuing Promise 2008 humanitarian mission, the Navy ship is providing medical and dental services, as well as assistance in the reconstruction of buildings and infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Felix in September 2007.

The ship is equipped to launch three kinds of missiles, support amphibious assault operations from ship to shore, transfer special forces, and evacuate troops and civilians. It also carries modern hospital facilities as well as fighter planes and helicopters, heavy vehicles, trucks and amphibious vehicles.

Christened in 1992, the warship has carried out missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. It also took part in humanitarian operations in Turkey and in the U.S. war on Iraq.

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complete article here

[Selatius]

1. We could fly the medical personnel in, on chartered passenger jets, for far quicker.

The same could be said for medical supplies. Fly them in. A ship is much slower than a jumbo jet.

[Junkdrawer]

2. The plot thickens...A Russian Fleet is heading there....

The White House said Monday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's invitation to host a Russian fleet was "peculiar" and accused him of neglecting his people's problems.

"The Russians and the Venezuelans can engage in whatever cooperation they like. But it is peculiar, I am not sure that Venezuela needs or wins anything from a visit of the Russian fleet," said spokesman for the White House National Security Council, Gordon Johndroe, as reported by AFP.

"You would think that President Chávez would concentrate more on the problems that the people of Venezuela are having rather than inviting the fleet in a port call," Gordon said, adding that he could not confirm the invitation.

Chávez said during his weekly radio and TV program last Sunday that Russian President Dmitri Medvedev wanted to send a naval fleet to visit Venezuela.

....

http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/08/18/en_pol_art_us:-venezuelas-invi_18A1920519.shtml