This seems like a good time to take a quick break from reality, given all the recent hoopla regarding fidel castro’s bowels, and have a good, hardy laugh at the following posted at Oscar Corrals “Cuban Connection“:
The Center for Democracy in the Americas, joined by U.S.A. Engage, today released In Our National Interest: The Top Ten Reasons for Changing U.S. policy toward Cuba.
“This top ten list is a powerful reminder to Congress and all Americans that sanctions against Cuba do nothing but violate American values, cost American jobs, stain our image overseas, and breach our basic rights,” said Sarah Stephens with the Center for Democracy in the Americas. “As Cuba enters a new era, so should America, and replace our policy of isolating Cuba with one favoring engagement, travel, and trade.”
Grounded in research and reality, “In Our National Interest” states the key arguments in fourteen pages with backup research and a powerful clarity:
1 The policy has produced nothing in decades
2 Enforcing the policy drains resources from the war on terror
3 The policy hurts American companies and American workers
4 The policy is an assault on family values
5 The policy infringes on the rights and liberties of all U.S. citizens
6 The policy hurts America’s image abroad
7 The Castro government uses our policy to advance its own ends
8 The policy puts political interests above the national interest
9 Important people oppose the policy and want to see it changed
10 The policy stops Americans from doing what they do best
My only question is what color crayon did they use to write said list?
Update: Just in case anyone wants to get all serious and stuff about this list above:
1 The policy has produced nothing in decades
The policy has prevented the Cuban Government from untold Billions of dollars both through business trading and access to the World Bank.
2 Enforcing the policy drains resources from the war on terror
The policy, given the Cuban government’s known ties to terrorists states is part and parcel of the War on Terror.
3 The policy hurts American companies and American workers.
The policy protects American companies and American workers by preventing same from dealing and/or trading with Cuban entities that have Nationalized American businesses, stolen untold millions from same and defaulted and/or reneged on business contracts to the tune of close to 14 billion dollars.
4 The policy is an assault on family values
The policy is not at fault for the assault on family values instigated and perpetuated on the Cuban people by the Cuban government.
5 The policy infringes on the rights and liberties of all U.S. citizens
The policy does not infringe on the rights and liberties of US Citizens as set forth by the Constituion and Bill of Rights.
6 The policy hurts America’s image abroad.
The policy is concerned with doing what is morally and ethically correct and not with whatever image said policy portrays.
7 The Castro government uses our policy to advance its own ends.
The Cuban government will use any and all US policies to advance its own ends.
8 The policy puts political interests above the national interest
The policy is in the best interest of the nation and should not be used for political means.
9 Important people oppose the policy and want to see it changed.
Who are these important people and why should their best interests supercede those of the Cuban people?
10 The policy stops Americans from doing what they do best.
The Civil War: 970,227 casualties; WWI: 320,710; World War II: 1,078,162;Korean War: 136,935;
Vietnam War: 211,47;. It seems to me Americans are best at sacrificing for the freedom of the oppressed.
I bet little Oscar is grateful that you are reading his blog. After he started censoring it last summer, the comments on his blog have plummeted at the speed of his popularity in the Cuban exile community. He is the perfect Cuban American token at the Herald.
mrcs_c,
I rarely read that blog. I do so mostly only when I find a link through my blog referrals.
I have to ask; what is it that Americans do best that the Cuba policy is stopping them from doing?
For sure………….The Color is Red!
I would like to send Oscarlito a White flag to put display in his office. Not White for “Obatalas” peace, but White for Surrender.
Oscar Corral has recently removed so-called comment “moderation” and issued a public invitation to former “commenters” to return to Miami’s Cuban Connection.
I responded to his appeal with this comment:
“Hopefully, the old stalwarts will trickle back, although you, Oscar, have done everything in your power to alienate them and destroy this blog, once the most popular in Miami and one of the most popular in the nation, judging from the threads with 400+ comments of its storied heyday.
If Miami’s Cuban Connection is to have any hope of recovering its former glory (which seems unlikely), you must cooperate also by contributing your indifference, which is what made this blog a success in the first place. When Oscar Corral began to insinuate himself in his blog, the blog died.”
Ay por favor …. esa lista la escribio esa trasnochada con puro daiquiri en el cerebro. La tipa solo esta reciclando (like my espanglish?) todas la imbecilidades que oye. El blog ese debe estar desesperado por hits con semejante salvajada.
This is worthy of The Late Show’s … TOP TEN phony reasons moobat bloggers use to rant about Cuba.
There is one American war that pertains especially to Cuba which you do not cite:
Total American casualties in Cuba during the Spanish-American War (1898): 311
BUT….. Important people oppose the policy and want to see it changed!like really important people like ya know? like Paris Hilton or like Lindsay Lohan like. whats wrong with you people?
Manuel,
I specifically omitted that war and the present one.
Maybe everybody is missing an interesting angle here. If this is the best medicine they can muster for the top dog what do the rest of the people have to settle for? His doctors have had three strikes and all he got from the operation was an infection. Fidel…three strikes. Doesn’t that mean you’re out?
Val:
I can’t imagine the reason that you would omit that “Splendid Little War,” as Theodore Roosevelt called it.
For the Americans, it was indeed “splendid.” They suffered just 311 casualties. In fact, more Americans soldiers died from diarrhea in Cuba than died on the battlefield.
Cubans, however, sustained more than 300,000 casualties in the war, known to Cubans as our War of Independence (1895-1895) or “Martí’s Revolution.” The Spanish-American War (1898) was a brief and lamentable episode in that greater war.
The Spanish-American War was also the fountainhead of all our troubles. The Americans co-opted the victory which the Cubans had won on the battlefield; imposed a government of occupation; inflicted on us the Platt Amendment, which gave the U.S. the right to intervene in Cuba at will; and, as a final outrage, forced the nascent republic to lease to them in perpetuity the Guantánamo Naval Base.
Without the Spanish-American War, Cuba would have been spared all the horrors that befell it in the 20th century, including the greatest horror of all, Fidel Castro.
Nevertheless, Cubans should honor the memory of the 311 American soldiers who fell in the Spanish-American War, because they also died for a Free Cuba. They are not responsible for the subsequent actions of their government, which were as much an affront to them as to the Cuban people.
I fired back at that flosspecker a couple of times- not that it’ll do any good. Someone hidebound to keep the tropical version of Stalinism moving on likely can’t be reasoned with.
Entirely possible, Manuel. I tend to think that Cuba tragically got caught up in the wrong place at the right time. Guantanamo Bay, for instance- not so much a punishment for Cuba as it was war spoils from Spain. Remember- we wound up with the Phillipines in much the same way.
where did you get the stats for nam? i always heard it was about 51/52k KIA? is that KIA + MIA + injuries?
Bill H.:
Did France get a naval base on Chesapeake Bay as “spoils” when it defeated the English at Yorktown?
In fact, the U.S. originally wanted 10 naval bases in Cuba and the Isle of Pines. Cuba’s first president, Estrada Palma, whom the Communists condemn as an “American stooge,” nevertheless was able to negotiate that down to just one naval base — Guantánamo.
The U.S. military occupation did not end until the Cubans agreed to lease the base “in perpetuity” to Americans. As a further indignity, Cubans were forced to incorporate the Platt Amendment, granting the U.S. the right to intervene in Cuba, into our first Constitution. Only then did the Americans leave (although they returned often enough).
The seeds of those historic crimes would yield a bitter harvest in forthcoming years. In fact, we are still gathering that putrid fruit.
Manuel
It is true that the US got involved in the war for Independence of Cuba only at the end, but you can’t deny that the help received from the US was essential to defeating Spain. It is not bad to be grateful to those who helped.
Besides, the US only remained in Cuba for a couple of years and the Platt Amendment specifically stated that the US could intervene in Cuba ONLY to PRESERVE Cuban independence.
We cannot forget that it was in the US’s interest for Cuba to remain free because Cuba is only 90 miles away from US soil, so if a foreign power took over Cuba it would threaten the US because the foreign power could launch an invasion from Cuba into the US.
That is the reason why the US wanted to have a military base in Cuba, to ensure that Spain would not return and launch a war against the US from Cuba.
Castro has always used the Platt Amendment to call the US imperialistic, it is part of the doctrine he always uses. But think about it, if you had many valuables in your house or if you lived in a mansion, wouldn’t you be worried about who your neighbor is and what he is doing?? And if a gang took over your neighbor’s house wouldn’t you want to be able to call on someone to kick the gang out???
You can’t blame the US involvement in Cuba’s Independence War for Castro getting into power. If the Platt Amendment were in place, the US could have invaded Cuba and put the dictator Castro in jail for his crimes and made Cuba free again, but retard Kennedy signed a treaty with Kruschev so the US can’t do any of that.
The Platt Amendment could have been Cuba’s only way to gain freedom and get rid of the dictator Castro, but sadly Kennedy became president and screwed the invasion and screwed the Cubans by signing the treaty that the US would never invade Cuba.
See, the reason I omitted the Spanish-American war was that I did not want the thread to turn into a pros and cons argument on said war. this threa is about the blindingly moronic list as put forth by an anti-embargo group. lets stick to that please.
To be truthful, I think US Cuban policy has not worked because it (i) gives Castro a easy target for HIS failures as a leader (he can say “Yes I cannot allow free elections and you have to drive 1956 cars but that is only because of the embargo”) and (ii) allows Castro a safety value — all the Cuban exiles in the US might otherwise have forced his regime out 20 years ago.
Val:
By omitting the Spanish-American War, didn’t you think that it would make that war conspicious by its absence and thereby invite my comments and those of others on it?
We cannot re-write history, Val, or airbrush wars.
Manuel,
Im not re-writing history or airbrushing wars. I specifically omitted certain wars for a reason.
The spanish american war in Cuba was omitted because it is Cuba specific. The Iraq wars were omitted to keep the thread from being hijacked by Bush derangement syndrome and the Stop the War Now crowd.
this post is about the list as published at corrals blog. Nothing more, nothing less. to focus in the comments solely on those wars deviates from the point.
Blue State,
Cuba policy has worked in that it has kept fidel castro economically at bay. Imagine what his regime could have done having access toi untold Billions through the world bank, which the embargo prevents.
And fidel castro can say whatever he wants and blame the embargo all he wants to just like he would blame American influence for all of Cuba’s ills if the embargo werent in place.