The year 2016 is off to a remarkable start vis-à-vis U.S. foreign policy.  In less than a week, Iran and Saudi Arabia are threatening to go to war, Afghanistan has come alive after being quiet for a while, and North Korea exploded whatever they exploded.  Let's add Cuba to the list.

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, a “missile” has been found in Cuba:

“For more than a year, amid a historic thawing of relations between the U.S. and Cuba, American authorities have tried to get the Cuban government to return the missile, said people familiar with the matter.

This particular missile didn't contain explosives, but U.S. officials worry that Cuba could share the sensors and targeting technology inside it with nations like China, North Korea or Russia, these people said.

Well, what happened?  To be fair, we don't know for sure, but there are some interesting angles to this story.

First, it appears from the article, and timeline of 2014, that we were talking with the Cuban government about re-establishing relations at the time that they were holding this missile.  Why didn't we end all discussions until the missile was returned?  Why not?  I remind you that the Obama State Department was also working to remove Cuba from the list of terrorist nations.

Second, and this is scary, did Cuba try to sell it to North Korea or trade it with Russia or China?  After all, didn't some Russian ships show up in Cuba recently?

We don't know for sure, but I think the Obama administration dropped the ball.  They should have insisted on the return of the missile prior to any normalization.

Stay tuned, because there is more coming from this story.

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