Monday, December 20, 2004
From the AP:
Cubans awoke to air raid sirens Sunday and practiced shooting, putting on gas masks and doing duck-and-cover drills as the communist nation wrapped up a week of preparation after Fidel Castro's government warned against possible attacks from the United States.
The activities, called the Strategic Bastion 2004 Exercise, were intended as an evaluation of how prepared Cuba is to face military attack during President Bush's second term.
State-run newspapers reported Sunday that the exercises were a success and that Cuba's ''capacity to resist and overcome an imperialist aggression'' was demonstrated.
Since even before the United States launched its unilateral attack on Iraq last year, Cuba has insisted that a similar U.S. strike is possible.
''The risks of aggression are real,'' President Fidel Castro said Sunday on Cuban television.
