Bush Pursues Archaic Cuba Policy on Anniversary of Missile Crisis
It is exactly 45 years since the Cuban Missile crisis, but still President Bush continues to insist on an outmoded approach to the island.
He told a group of Cuban exiles on October 24 that “the socialist paradise is a tropical gulag,” and he vowed to maintain the U.S. embargo on Cuba. And like President Kennedy before the Bay of Pigs, he conjured up the fantasy that the Cuban people would rise up to overthrow their government.
But JFK learned from his mistakes. And during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the fate of the entire globe rested in his hands, his levelheaded approach averted planetary disaster.
What is frightening is that now at the helm we have a president with a cowboy mentality who has learned nothing from his debacle in Iraq.
President Bush’s speech on Cuba had little to do with reality and a lot to do with believing in a fairy tail created by anti-Castro forces, just as he believed in a fairy tail created by anti-Saddam forces.
Part of being a competent leader is to see the world as it is, and to recognize
the viewpoints of other countries.
That is one of the lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
To the Cubans, the October crisis was about self-defense and about securing the hard gains of the populist revolution that ousted the puppet government of Fulgencio Batista.
To the Russians, the crisis was about making a counter move after the United
States placed bombs in Turkey; it was a way of regaining nuclear balance.
And to the United States, the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba was not only a threat to the mainland but also an affront to the Monroe Doctrine. It is this doctrine that has justified many unwarranted U.S. interventions throughout Latin America.
Kennedy calmly managed a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Bush, however, keeps increasing the tensions with Cuba, and keeps turning up the rhetoric.
This is no way to improve the lot of the Cuban people.
We need a president who is levelheaded and who is willing to challenge old notions of our country’s role in the world. And that includes making a clean break with almost five decades of bankrupt belligerence toward Cuba.
Ana C. Perez is the executive director of the Central American Resources Center in San Francisco. She can be reached at prmproj@progressive.org
© 2007 The Progressive Magazine
Ana is, of course, correct. This is an issue that illustrates the bi-partisan blindness of American political leadership. Liberal and conservative, Republican and Democratic, Latino and non-Latino, we have all been swallowing this load of crap about Cuba for so long that it has come to have a tasty savor to it.
Meanwhile, the world goes on and in a curious way Castro and his communist regime owe their longevity to American intransigent stupidity–because the only thing the overwhelming masses of Latin Ameirca hate more than the expoitation of the wealthy or militarily powerful over the weak is American meddling in their affairs.
America made Fidel what he has become. Both because of its support for Fulgencia Batista and his Mafia and multinational American corporate backers and its continued embargo against Cuba, Fidel has the perfect alibi for the failures of his regime.
Personally I hope Fidel lives till at least 01/21/09 so he can say bye-bye to the 10th American Presidente who has come and gone and say hello to number 11. Like “Ol’ Man River”, Fidel just keeps rolling along. Viva Fidel, viva la revolution!
BUSH CHIDES CUBANS TO RISE UP AND DIE
Bush’s message was delivered directly to Cuban civilians as well as the government, for the former effectively to rise up and overthrow the government, and for the latter effectively to overtake Raoul and Castro in a coup.
Thanks to the U.S. embargo, Cuba is trading with China and others. Why didn’t Bush deliver the same lecture to China? Why wasn’t an embargo placed on trade to China?
When Ashcroft was around, it appeared Bush was against assisted suicide. Apparently not when it comes to some downtrodden subjects of a relic communist dictator.
They’re just so much collateral damage to the small, warped mind of a freedom fetish. Leave no Cuban behind … dead maybe, but not behind.
I really don’t see that Bush has any business telling the citizens of Cuba how to deal with their corrupt government. Bush would better spend his time worrying about the citizens of his own country and how is going to deal with us. We too are nearing the point of an uprising over our corrupt government.
President Bush does not have either time or opportunity to do anything significant about Cuba. But making speeches is what he’s good at. He’s about to go into full time campaign mode (his favorite mode) from now until November, 2008, even though he’s not running.
(Unless, of course, they do “Draft Laura” at the last minute.)
Being “against Castro” is one more thing Republicans can be reminded to put on the cheerleading list. And that’s exactly what Mr. Bush is doing.
A large majority of informed people outside the US sees that the American obsession with the tiny island nation of Cuba is ludicrous. The only part of Cuba that can be described as a gulag is the part occupied by the US.
I understand that past and present American military and economic aggression against Cuba is due in part to domestic politics i.e. former Cubans that, like members of the Iraqi National Congress before the invasion of Iraq, dream of the day that a US backed dictatorship can be re-installed to power. Unfortunately for the US, despite decades of attempted assassinations, military invasions and economic blockades, Cubans are still free.
Even as an impoverished, underdeveloped country, made more so by being forced to defend against American hostility, the Cubans are punching well above their weight class in how they provide services to their people. The medical help they provide at home and internationally is world-renowned. Imagine what they could do with more outside help.
Latin America is more democratic today than ever before. Elected leaders are beginning to find common cause in opposing the US army backed multinationals. The fact that these young democracies are finding more in common with the government of Fidel Castro than that of George Bush is a testament to Cuba’s past accomplishments and future promise.
You may not get along with your brother or sister, but when someone threatens your family the solidarity against the enemy is complete. This administration would be better off promoting stability and solidarity at home instead of messing in other country’s backyards. What do we need to exploit in Cuba? Sugar? Cigars?
[quote]Daniel David October 26th, 2007 1:05 pm — President Bush does not have either time or opportunity to do anything significant about Cuba. But making speeches is what he’s good at.[/quote]
Hmmm. That last part is debatable, but I suppose he may be considered relatively good at it compared to almost everything else he does, especially in the broad area of U.S. foreign policy.
I thought that the growing “radical populism” in places like Venezuala was the biggest current boogeyman and threat to the U.S. version of “freedom and democacy” in the hemisphere. Bush seems to be retrogressing somewhat, but I suppose there are more Cuban ex-pats who can vote for the Repug party — not that it matters much.
re annabelle 1:24 pm
sugar and cigars are the least of it. fidel’s great crime is that he’s created a bad example: an economy that actually works to the benfit of the citizens (for example, cuba’s literacy and infant mortality figures put the u.s.’s to shame) despite the vicious and petulant (and bipartisan) 45-year long embargo. socialism was supposed to have died with the soviet union, but rumors of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. no doubt shrub and the neocons are going batty at the unfolding of events in venezuela and bolivia, where fidel is as revered as shrub is reviled.
I don’t like Castro’s government. But then I don’t like the governments of Saudi Arabia or China to name two. We do business with them.
So again i say: Bush is an idiot. The End.
The only reason Fidel Castro is still in power in Cuba is because the US government allows it. If, at any time, the decision was made to use America’s military might to overthrow Castro’s regime, it would happen in a few hours.
His army is staffed by mostly indigent, poverty stricken volunteers and use bicycles to get around. They have no significant quantities of gasoline or oil. They use 20 year old rifles and have almost no ammunition. His formal military forces have been cut way back, as he has no money to keep them equipped, housed, trained and fed.
If our government was REALLY interested in spreading freedom and democracy, if they REALLY wanted to “liberate” Cuba and depose Fidel and his government, they could do it completely in less than 24 hours with our present arsenal and military capabilities achieving full occupation and control very quickly. Cuba’s armed forces could never pose any sort of defense at all against our massive military superiority.
(Besides, there are no massive oil reserves there to “liberate”. I can guarantee if Cuba was an oil rich country like Iraq - we would have been there, “spreading freedom”, like we are now in Iraq!)
So why DOES our government allow Fidel to continue in his position?
Several reasons. One is simple. They are waiting for his regime to fail so we can say, “See?! We told you so! Our embargo worked! Socialism is a failure! See?”
Additionally, no one wants to take on the massive financial cost of putting Cuba back on the path to democracy. It would truly cost a huge fortune to completely revamp the Cuban government and industrial infrastructure. Plus, there are no valuable resources to plunder and the Cuban people are dirt poor so there is no one there to victimize and steal from!
Also, how in the world would the USA negotiate the unavoidable chaos that would result from the sudden change of government. No police, no order, no legal landowners, no functional money system or banking industry. Over one million exiled Cubans living in America alone, all rushing back to claim their land and property after almost 50 years of exile with no court system in place, no reasonable legal precedent to utilize?
Think about all that for a second or two.
Me, I am waiting to go back to our home we left in Havana in 1959 when we were driven out of it by Communist guerillas with machine guns.
I can’t wait!
I am not sure what to do with whoever is living there now however. Maybe I will take some groceries, a few US twenties and a bicycle, far more than the modern-day equivalent of $24.00 worth of wampum.
Better than a machine gun….
DiegoACNP,
It’s really great to read this point of view! I think it’s an injustice what has been done to you despite whatever I may think about Cuba. Personally, I remain angry at many of the injustices I feel have been acted upon me over the course of my own life, and there have been moments where I have lost all that I had, but then I realize that there’s very little I can control on some existential level.
Some would argue that we are caught up both in an individual karma and in a societal karma as well. What’s critical is to maintain your humanity through it all, I believe. The days of an eye for an eye were supposed to have come to an end a millenia or so ago.
What we think we own, we may lose, and so do we really own anything? In a willingness to surrender what we once had, we may discover that we have gained something new, but until we completely give up what we had we live a little in the past.
I believe we are all faced with this possibility at the current moment and it’s not easy. Nor has it been easy for those who came before us.
DiegoANCP,
I wouldn’t be so sure that the US military could conquer Cuba in 24 hours, or at all. Bay of Pigs was supposed to be easy, but Cubans surprised Uncle Sam. The era of favorable trade relations with the Soviet Union ended, and socialism still prevails in Cuba. Castro’s future death will not end socialism either. Cuba had a socialist revolution because capitalism left most of the country underdeveloped and overexploited. The rebels had machine guns, but Batista had US-supplied planes, bombs, training and weapons. The rebels knew what they were fighting for, whereas Batista’s army was full of disaffected mercenaries. If you’re waiting for a change in Cuba, don’t hold your breath. And it won’t happen without a bloodbath.
“the socialist paradise is a tropical gulag,” - B.L.Z. Bush
Bush should no better than anyone…. Castro provided the socialist paradise for 99% of Cuba, and Bush supplied the tropical gulag of Gitmo
Those were a couple of funny posts. The U.S. couldn’t beat the impoverished Vietnamese after they had been worn out from fighting the French for almost a decade after WW2. In fact, the U.S. has never won a war against any army of near equal strength and they always wait until their target is weak or exhausted before they attack, like the true vultures that they are. And, besides, the Cubans have already beaten the U.S. on several occasions such as the Revolution, the Bay of Pigs and Angola. The U.S. knows that if they tried to go into Cuba that they would get slaughtered in a way that would make Iraq seem like a typical U.S. birthday party.
It’s also funny how the U.S. continues to allow that dolt to make statements that are so estranged from reality, almost as if they want to accelerate their own demise, like the shameful French at Dien Bien Phu. As for that Cuban mafia resident in Miami, those morons of CANF know at least that they’ll never get control of Cuba but they continue to help steal elections and spout their ineffective vitriol because the U.S. government gifts them tens of millions of dollars for it and that buys a lot of chocolate and sweaters.
It also makes you wonder who those idiots in the U.S. government are talking to with all their nonsensical lies about Cuba. The Cuban people already choose their own representatives and last Sunday over 95% of them turned out for their election. The U.S. could only fantasize about such a democratic participation. Another indication of Cuban support for their Revolution was in 2005 when the U.S. interest section in Havana started displaying anti-Revolution neon signs in the windows of one of the top floors of their building. On their evening news and discussion program “Mesa Redonda” Fidel called for a protest against such an affront against their country’s sovereignty. That was on Sunday evening and the protest, which was for the following Tuesday morning, saw a turnout of more than 1.4 million Cubans march past the U.S.interests section. It made for some beautiful pictures and demonstrated succinctly just how much support there is in Cuba for their Revolution.
Who got the gold makes the rules. The Miami Mafia is one of the Repugs greatest “contributors”.
Cubans have “free” health care.
46 Million Americans don’t have any health care at all.
Fidel you are a genius.
Hazmat…thank you for explaining the obvious and even though I was aware of what you had to say I, as usual, got caught up in my disgust for our President spewing platitudes to the Cuban people and inadvertantly to their goverment. If he could listen to himself he would realzie how foolish he sounds. But, then again maybe not.
Bush is a joke, what a idiotic statement to make, that Cuba is a tropical gulag. His government…..the one he is in charge of, has lost $4 trillion dollars, no one in his government can account for the loss. How much has Fidel wasted away? Sure no doubt some, but $4 trillion? And Bush does not even care…he continues his daily routine like nothing has happened, that is money that is going to have to come from somewhere, and most likely the average working person, and the poor. He is dispicable, and so are his cronies.
I have to apologize for my previous post. The Cubans actually had a 96.46 % turnout for their elections, as they just posted on their website. Sometimes I get blinded by the fact that they have free education and health care for everyone and zero unemployment. It makes me wonder who are these stupid capitlalist scumbags who don’t what a good thing is when they see it.
Interesting how an unlicensed foreign lobby group has so much influence over US policy.
We all talk about ‘bad’ Cuba. I agree the government is bad but don’t forget who has the greatest longevity and highest literacy rate in the americas - No, not the US.
CUBA!!!!!
From DiegoACNP: “Over one million exiled Cubans living in America alone, all rushing back to claim their land and property after almost 50 years of exile with no court system in place, no reasonable legal precedent to utilize?”
You might have hit on just the reason why the US wouldn’t invade Cuba. Maybe the richest of the millon exiles would go back but they better have their pockets full - the US would only make the investment of war for the payoff - after all there would be some prime real estate up for grabs, and who would profit would be decided well in advance. Cubans in my old hometown made out very well, West New York, NJ is now almost all Cuban. What do you think property is worth in a town 20 minutes outside of New York City? Cubans also prospered very well in Florida. Seems like they want their cake and to eat it too.
After 48 years, it’s time to get over it and count your blessings. Luckily, the guys with machine guns weren’t US Marines or blackwater types or you might not have been around to tell your tale. Viva Fidel, Viva Che!
Canadians have been visiting Cuba for many years. They reported no gulag, but a wonderful country, full of friendly, but poor, people, willing to share what they have. Basically they are poor because we have tried to systematically starve them out.
Despite this, they have near universal literacy, universal health care, have trained enough doctors and medical people to help all over the world, and even have even managed not to hate Americans, per se.
Cuba offered to send medical help to New Orleans, for free, when the magnitude of the disaster became obvious. Bush said, “No!” then left New Orleans on its own with lots of disease and little help.
For a while, Americans were allowed to travel to Cuba. When they began bringing back reports that didn’t jibe with our “Downtrodden peasants” rhetoric, BushCo reinstituted an absolute travel ban, and an embargo on any supplies, even medical, being sent to Cuba.
Heil Bush! He doesn’t know how to win friends, but he certainly influences people.
Fidel will be dead in a couple years, and his brother is almost as old as he is. Maybe after the Castro brothers are dead and gone the Cubans will actually have a chance to choose their own destiny.
bligh 1:23 pm: Cubans will actually have a chance to choose their own destiny.
just like we do in this country!!!!
and bligh, would you explain what you mean by choosing your own destiny? I’m a little confused on that one, seems a little overwhelming.
Your assumption sounds like faulty rhetoric to me:
choosing one’s destiny is desirable. The Cubans do not get to choose their own destiny. Therefore, the Cubans have been deprived.
How can you assert that this is a truth for Cubans? I think it’s somewhat unknowable.
bligh, I for one have missed seeing your posts lately! generally provocative, possibly too challenging for me. but at least I’m willing to try!
Diego, maybe if your pre-Castro gov. had taken better care of the poor people the revolution never would have happened. At least all the people now have a basic education and healthcare. Despite our sanctions and the collapse of the Soviet Union they have survived. I spent a few years way under the poverty level but because I was educated and lived in a decent area, actually a very beautiful rural area it was not such a horrible experience. Most americans can’t imagine life without cars and tv, not to mention cellphones, ipods, blackberries and all that other CRAP. Maybe we can’t overthrow Cuba because we know most Cubans (living there) wouldn’t stand for it.
The Cubans in Miami are doing the same thing as AIPAC. It doesn’t mean it is in the best interest of the United States, it is personal.
Geoff, good to hear from you.
Yes, since Castro has not seen fit to hold any elections for his replacement in almost 1/2 a century, and since he felt compelled to hand pick his brother as his successor , I would say that Cubans have not had a chance to choose their own destiny.
Leave the Cubans alone and hope for the best. Maybe Raul will have the decency to not live past his life expectancy.
bligh, outrageous, you sound like a character in star wars.
I think what you mean to say is that the Cubans have not had the opportunity to choose their political leaders and that a change may affect their way of living perhaps for the better perhaps not depending on your point of view.
Historically there’s been quite a bit of showing people how to “choose their own destiny,” and it’s usually done by gun barrel and isn’t very effective and is resented because it is just another kind of oppression. The US does quite a bit of that I gather from the news.
The eastern philosophies and the mystics explain that destiny is a script people are writing and is being written for them all the time in everything they do and think and behave. There is no depriving anyone or a people of their destiny even in a gulag on diego garcia, because we have free will. For our free will we may have to pay a price, but that might be our destiny.
I will hereby make a prophecy - we will all die at the completion of our time on this planet. That’s destiny for you.
Thanks Geoff, Yoda maybe?
You are right, I was simply saying that it would be nice after having to put up with Batista and the Castro brothers for 70 odd years, it would be nice for Cubans to actually have a choice. Whether it works out for better or worse is not knowable, but at least they would have a choice.
I have no time for communists or communism. But why do we embargo the commie bastards in Cuba while running up close to a trillion dollar trade deficit with the commie bastards in China? Is it an Orwellian “some commie bastards are more equal than others?”
To Geoff :”it would be nice after having to put up with Batista and the Castro brothers for 70 odd years” Did you conveniently forget the roughly forty years from the Platt Amendment of about 1903 to Batista , except for a few brief periods of enlightened government,Cuban citizens ” had to put up with” puppet dictators who were installed and supported by the US government and armed forces ?
If you are going to quote history , then do it right and tell the whole story,warts and all.
Then again I would suggest to you that you go historically much further back and read the Monroe Doctrine with its brazen expressions of anticipated American hegemony. If you haven’t read it already , let me summarize.The famous document denies the right of any European power to express influence on ANY country of the Americas. With the conspicuous absence of USA on that list of European powers , USA was free to meddle which consistantly and frequently it has done.
Just like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden,your boogeyman , Batista , was initially supported by the US government and abandoned when he became an embaressment to the US government.
Your expression ” it would be nice ” is as trivial and ethnocentric than the Beachboys’song lyrics ,” wouldn’t it be nice…”
If you are an American citizen then start cleaning up the mess in your own back yard and when you are finished you can start giving advice about ” it would be nice”