Cuban embargo: makes no sense

[Cricket]

Time for us to stop pandering to Miami exiles and quit this economic terrorism of Cuban people. 

[rjp2008]

Cuba's government is an extreme oppressor of free expression, democratic process and basic civil rights and liberties.  Blaming the US for Cuba's own oppressive government makes no sense. Perhaps it might be good for "US is bad" apologists to actually spend time in countries like Cuba to understand what goes on there.

[Dog Walker]

The Cuban government would hate for us to lift the embargo.  It gives them a unifying enemy to blame for all their troubles.  The embargo keeps their kleptocracy in power.

If we had lifted the embargo twenty years ago, the Castro brothers would be long gone.  We've embargoed them for fifty years now.  If it was going to work it would have.

[ben says]

Cuba's government is an extreme oppressor of free expression, democratic process and basic civil rights and liberties.  Blaming the US for Cuba's own oppressive government makes no sense. Perhaps it might be good for "US is bad" apologists to actually spend time in countries like Cuba to understand what goes on there.

I've actually been to Cuba--and I can tell you that what we think we know in the USA is not necessarily true. I went on a three week tour of the island with a native Cuban, so I did see all the sights, sounds, and people around.

First, Cuba is not nearly as oppressive as one would think. Our media is obsessed with extolling the United States and it's "great values", etc etc. If our media spent 1% of it's time on taking more in depth looks at Cuba, instead of blindly following what the State Department says, we would know much of this information is MISinformation.

Let's take a look at some of our closest allies, and see why the argument doesn't hold water (this places are much more oppressive, and much more responsible for human rights abuses than Cuba): Central African Republic, Columbia, Pakistan, Israel, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, (all the Central Asian Republics, actually), Saudi Arabia, etc etc.

Second, and most importantly, the United States IS the reason that much, if not most of the problems of the Cuban people. When they had their successful revolution against big-money interests, US kingpins, and Casino owners (I went to school with Batista's son, as well)--we decided to throw an economic embargo on them to make them "feel pain" (like we did with Chile in '79).

It's very hard to run a country when (A) you have no import/export partners and (B) every move you make for a more sustainable and just life is tackled by the big imperialist nations of the world.

People need to take a much closer look at American history....We aren't the great nation we always think we are.

[ben says]

Funny side note: Cuba, embargo in full gear, still has one of the best healthcare systems in the world. They actually export their doctors to other countries!

Looks like their priorities are a tad better than ours... 

[BridgeTroll]

There is no "economic terrorism"  Your term is a bumper sticker and no more.  That said... I do think its usefulness is probably past and it is time to begin talks with Cuba to normalize relations.  We have done so with China, North Korea and others...

[JeffreyS]

Funny side note: Cuba, embargo in full gear, still has one of the best healthcare systems in the world. They actually export their doctors to other countries!

Looks like their priorities are a tad better than ours... 

In Nicaragua some of the hospitals advertise that they have Cuban trained doctors.

[JeffreyS]

The embargo was worth giving a try. It however proved to not be useful enough long ago and the policy should be changed.

[ben says]

There is no "economic terrorism"  Your term is a bumper sticker and no more.  That said... I do think its usefulness is probably past and it is time to begin talks with Cuba to normalize relations.  We have done so with China, North Korea and others...

Yes, there is such thing as economic terrorism. It's a bumper sticker only to the uninformed. Please, please, please--read when happened to Chile in 1979 at the hands of the CIA and the USA. See the following.

U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered the CIA to depose President Allende in 1970 â€" immediately after assuming office â€" with Project FUBELT. The U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of Chile was a foreign policy meant to worsen the economic crisis that President Allende faced â€" in order to propitiate a right-wing coup d’état.[31]. This is further corroborated by a document sent on September 15, 1970 by President Nixon, in which he orders CIA director Richard Helms to "Make the economy scream [in Chile to] prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._intervention_in_Chile

Economic terrorism=free-market Capitalism. That's what it's all about. Breaking down borders, putting locals out of business, into pain. Flooding with cheap goods. Forcing others to adopt US policies.

[BridgeTroll]

I am quite informed and am quite familiar with the incident you cited...

The term remains a bumper sticker.  But feel free to call Kennedy and every president and member of congress since then terrorists... It is silly.

I will agree that it certainly is a national policy worthy of review and probably time for negotiations to normalize relations.

[ben says]

I am quite informed and am quite familiar with the incident you cited...

The term remains a bumper sticker.  But feel free to call Kennedy and every president and member of congress since then terrorists... It is silly.

I will agree that it certainly is a national policy worthy of review and probably time for negotiations to normalize relations.

I didn't mean to call you, in particular, ignorant. Just a general statement. Most of America (misinformed) has no idea what happens, ever, outside of their own bubble.

But yeah, I do think Kennedy, and every President thereafter is a terrorist. How many children/civilians has Obama killed in Afghanistan over the past year and a half? How many children did Clinton kill in Iraq with economic sanctions (economic terrorism)...800,000 to 1.5 million. How many people did Bush kill? Over 2 million...

Let's be real here--we aren't what we say we are.

[redglittercoffin]

Let's be real here--

Okay.  You can start whenever you'd like.

[ben says]

Let's be real here--

Okay.  You can start whenever you'd like.

I've started. Open to any real evidence to the contrary.

[BridgeTroll]

Ben... your outrage is misplaced.  The proper entities you should be angry with are... Castro, Saddam, Taliban/alqaida et al... Without those folks... there would not have been any "economic terrorism".

[ben says]

Ben... your outrage is misplaced.  The proper entities you should be angry with are... Castro, Saddam, Taliban/alqaida et al... Without those folks... there would not have been any "economic terrorism".

Quite the opposite.

The Taliban/Al Qaeda were "blowback" groups created by the United States because of our policies from 1979 onward. These groups/tyrants didn't just "pop up" out of nowhere--they were responses to our policies.

Looks like you've been reading too much one-sided history.