Julian E. Barnes

Well, we don't know what the exact endgame is here.

We don't know exactly what the U.S.

wants here.

But what's clear is that the pressure is only going to increase.

This indictment is just the next step in that, right?

Like, it is a message to the Cuban government that what happened in Venezuela could happen in Cuba.

It's very important to note that our reporting shows that President Trump wants the option.

He wants the option to do a military extraction

to get Raul Castro to put pressure on the Cuban government.

You saw Todd Blanch raise that.

He talked about how would they get Castro, right?

And he talked about it being a Pentagon issue.

That said, it's also important to note that there aren't a lot of special operations forces in the region.

There aren't special operations forces that we know of that have been training for this kind of operation.

Cuba's very different than Venezuela.

The circumstances are different.

It seems that an actual military extraction of Castro

is pretty remote.

You know, all the special operations forces are still in the Middle East.

They're still geared up to possible action against Iran, right?