I dont want to get into a debate on the totally absurd “wet foot/dry foot” policy, but I do want to take this opportunity to say the US Coast Guard can kiss my ass.
H/T Joe L.
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…an island on the net without a bearded dictator
Absurd and inhumane, but you’re asking the wrong people to pucker up. They’re just following orders. There’s a guy who got his job because of Cubans that can make the wet foot/dry foot go away with the stroke of a pen , but won’t.
-“…being monitored by Cuba’s border guard, which followed the boat out of Cuban waters and sent a fax alerting the Coast Guard at 3:54 a.m.”
Imagine that! United States Coast Guard working jointly with the Castro Mafia Dictorship to FIND AND RETURN escaping refugees from the island prison.
I dont know what I think is more absurd, the wet foot/dry foot policy, or political asylum refugees that travel back to the country they left and sought asylum from the first chance they get.
The problem is twofold: Every time the US has liberalized immigration from Cuba, castro has used the opportunity to send a law-enforecment-overwhelming mass migration seeded with honest-to-goodness criminals, spies, and subversives. Also, given the likely changes coming up, the last thing we want to give either castro brother is a pressure-release valve.
Also, keep in mind what I have said before: If it turns out in a few years we learn that castro was allowed to keep an ICBM from the Missile Crisis for “self defense,” this means that castro is threatening at least one American city. Any means the US uses to undermine him will have to be indirect in order to keep him from using it.
I will trade an as-of-yet-not-completed op/ed piece (with distilled letter-to-editor version) that I’m writing about the broader needs for a dramatic shift in US policy towards Cuba from the dual perspective of fostering democracy on the island (one justification used for the Iraq debacle) and recognizing the national security threat posed by the axis between Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea and Russia (and not from political refugees fleeing Castro’s tyranny who are interdicted on the high seas) in exchange for the same (op-ed length generic piece and companion letter to the editor that once and for all puts paid to the wet foot/dry foot policy in such a manner as to both clearly demonstrate its absurdity with regards to a moral/values-based analysis [in such a manner as to NOT jeopardize what little special status Cubans have left when they flee Castro] and the sickening notion of our public servants (like FBI and Coast Guard) being compelled by idiotic, unscrupulous policy makers to collaborate with an undemocratic regime that imprisons, tortures, represses and generally abuses its captive population while simultaneously accusing the USA of doing the same…) – all set in the appropriate historical context with reference to the fact that Cuban refugees to the USA have become some of the most successful (w/ respect to financial achievement) and socially integrated arrivals to this country.
I want this piece to basically modify and submit to a variety of media outlets w/ my own byline, because I simply don’t have time to write all of the op-ed pieces that must be written to keep this issue alive and make it more salient for johnny appleseed in middle america who unfortunately is not discerning enough to make the necessary, true distinction between economic migrants from mexico and Cubans who are fleeing the same kind of communist tyranny that the Regan Administration fought so relentlessly in Eastern Europe.
Basically, I want to start a pool of these op/ed pieces and letters to the editor that we fighters for Cuban liberty can readily access, modify and submit under our own names to media outlets across the world to begin a more organized communications campaign.
Until the fight for Cuban liberty is understood and accepted as valid by those Americans who have no vested familial or otherwise emotional interest or connection to Cuba (unlike me, with my Cuban spouse), no substantiative policy changes will take place.
Joe, I really believe that truth and free thought facilitate the proper functioning of the human brain. The American education system has been co-opted by the radical left, and America’s children are growing up believing that the United States is evil. They are taught relativism, and that the mighty U.S. is an imperialistic power responsible for all the misery in the world. The MSM perpetuates that lie. That is why so many American’s are no longer are capable of critical thought. That is why Johnny Appleseed in middle America can’t tell the difference between a Mexican and a Cuban, or a terrorist and a freedom fighter. Their brain function is inhibited, resulting in muddled thought. The enemy is indeed within.
US coast guard is not to blame,they are just “the messenger”,wet/dry foot policy is the one that has to be changed,besides,US coast guard saved thousands of cubans before this policy was implanted….
US coast guard is not to blame,they are just “the messenger”,wet/dry foot policy is the one that has to be changed,besides,US coast guard saved thousands of cubans before this policy was implanted….
Tony44,
I beg to differ. It was the USCG officer’s finger on that shotgun’s trigger. Last I heard, the border patrol isn’t shooting at Mexican migrants when they run from them at the border. Yes, it is Bush’s policy, and he can stop this with a simple stroke of the pen. But, it is the Coast Guard that decides what methods to use to implement this callous policy. They don’t get a pass on this.
I’ve said it before, it is infuriating. There’s something like 18 million Mexican ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS in the U.S. We all know what happened to the agents who shot at a drug runner on the border. But groups of Cuban REFUGEES fleeing in a boat? Open season.
I dont understand? Border patrol shoots at Mexican drug smugglers and they get arrested. Coast Guard shoots at Cuban non drug smugglers and they probably get a medal. I think we are moving backwards.
first of all,littlegator,yes,the border patrol shoots at “coyotes” and ilegals mexicans if they dont stop when they are told to do so,and in the case of the cubans the US coast guard didnt shot at people,but at the engines…
now,about the case of two US patrols in US/Mexican border,in which they shoot and hurt in the “culo” al “coyote narcotraficante”,and later,them,the US patrols were the ones to blame,and they were put in jail,is a case still in debate in congress,will see the results,’cause until now,both agents are in jail for 11 and 12 years..
and i repeat again,”the wet/dry foot policy is the one to blame,and the one that needs to be removed,changed….the US patrols just do their jobs,and what they are told to do….and again,before that policy,a lot,a lot of cubans balseros,etc,were saved by the same US patrols,i dont know any of you guys,but at least me,i saw it,i saw those guys putting their lives in danger to save cubans……thanks
Tony, as I’m sure you know, this was not the first incident between the coast guard and Cuban refugees. I too lay the bulk of the blame on the policy, but I don’t excuse the coast guard. They chose the actions which resulted in her death, and then she did not receive proper medical care. There is no moral justification for treating refugees like this. The real solution of course is to get rid of castro inc.
http://www.christusrex.org/www2/fcf/drarr.html
ziva,i understand all you’ve said,then,instead of blaming the US coast guard as a whole,blame first the policy…second,the border agent who didnt give emergency assistant fast enough,….and third,well,if they dont stop,the US agents got to find a way to do that job,and i put myself in the shoes of the cubans,and although i hate that policy,and i dont like anybody being shooting at my engine,or the “engine” that takes me to freedom,i also understand that the agents are just that,”agents”…no more and no less…
It’s infuriating the the USCG officers or swabbies (or whatever they’re called) will actually risk the lives of women and children who are fleeing a communist dictatorship by using deadly force against there boat. I know that if I was trying to secure my wife Yuliet’s freedom from Castro’s hell by extracting her via a go-fast boat and she died in a similar situation, I would harbor more than resentment against the brute who pulled the trigger.
However, this is a clear example of another instance where we as a community need to harness, channel and use our seething anger at the inexcusable actions of the USCG officer/swabbie, and fight tooth and nail against the law/policy (enacted in the Clinton era and UPHELD during the Bush administration) that makes it the duty of the USCG to take actions such as these. Leaving aside moral responsibility, individual choice, passive resistance, conscious objection (to an inhumane, hypocritical policy)…the genesis of the problem is and will continue to be the policy at the Federal level. And while there are some brave USCG members who will not aid Castro’s tyranny, there are others – who either lack the moral compass, ethical courage or powers of reasoning – who take the same actions seen in this most recent tragic case.
Viva Cuba Libre!
Littlegator says your right, by the way Im not from Florida if that is where the reference to Gator comes from (not all Cubans are from MIA). I don’t blame any specific USCG individual, rather the flawed process in which both of these dichotomous situations occurred.
How is it that 2 border agents are given a 10 year prsion stretch for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in the ass cheek as he tries to evade capture for making an illegal entry into the US but the US Coast Guard is justified in firing on a boat full of Cuban refugees that results in the death of a young woman? We are being sucked into a rabbit hole of inverted reality. I just can’t take much more of the insanity. And for what it’s worth, George Bush be damned!