Marc, I once again hate to be cynical, but as Kevin mentioned in a different discussion, Roosevelt Roads is once again up and running pretty close its old glory as explained to me. Aguadilla is once again an operational asset on PR. The Dominican Republic is even getting involved. Why does this matter? In simplest terms, dollars. An aircraft carrier brings nothing to these island nations monetarily. A built up military presence on these islands is a fiscal windfall however. There were enough tankers in Santo Domingo to stage an all out war. There were enough armed reapers in PR to eradicate an entire fleet of drug boats. None of it was hidden. It stands to reason that the plan is to increase the budget to “fight WMD/ narco terror” in our own backyard using our Southern neighbors to isolate the communist regimes. We are essentially buying friends like we tried in the Middle East for so long. To be fair, it could be good policy. My state is full of hispanic refugees who are elated by current events. Twenty years GWOT tells us it could also be a messy Bay of Pigs everywhere we go. This whole business is such a fine line and I’m not convinced our government even cares how it turns out. Until we clean up our own government I don’t think we are in a position to “save” anybody else’s. It’s not enough to just quietly end careers of corrupt public servants. People need to be clad in irons if there is any hope of restoring public trust. On Sat, Jan 3, 2026 at 9:22 PM Harold Brattland <habrattland@arvig.net> wrote:
It was an Army Op, so MH47 is their flying machine....great capability for night sneaking into town.
On 1/3/2026 16:39, Marc Liebman wrote:
Amen…..
This was a cool op, kinda like the hit on Bin Laden. Back in the good old days, this was called a “body snatch….”
BTW, note three things. One, no MV-22s or at least none in the released photos, even those taken by folks in Caracas…. Two, what we deployed was overkill. Three, operating F-35As from Roosevelt Roads required tanking. Its 500 NM from Roosevelt Roads to Caracas. I know this sounds parochial, but a carrier air wing could have done this by itself augmented by F-35Bs off the *Iwo Jima *unless it was chock-ablock with 160th helos but then again, this is a purple world and everybody had to play.
Marc Liebman
https://www.facebook.com/marcliebmanauthor/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_sDoFQM5wupNaCeGIvKL1g
*From: *Mike Brattland <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com> <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com> *Date: *Saturday, January 3, 2026 at 12:13 PM *To: *'HeloBubbas' <helobubbas@helobubbas.com> <helobubbas@helobubbas.com> *Subject: *[Helobubbas] Re: Venezuela's Maduro Flown To USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Assault Ship After Capture
Thanks to Brian Miller on this list who has been sharing what he has been seeing over the last several weeks during his Frontier flights in and out of various places where our forces were for this action. Great discussion and pictures of parts of this package….mgb
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*From:* mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com> <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com> *Sent:* Saturday, January 3, 2026 10:09 AM *To:* HeloBubbas <helobubbas@helobubbas.com> <helobubbas@helobubbas.com> *Subject:* [Helobubbas] Venezuela's Maduro Flown To USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Assault Ship After Capture
https://www.twz.com/news-features/venezuelas-maduro-flown-to-uss-iwo-jima-am...
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