It's about time the US smartened up on Cuba

Vastet
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It's about time the US smartened up on Cuba

U.S. seeks new beginning with Cuba

By Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service April 18, 2009

Full Article Here

Obama has now officially accomplished more in a few months than Bush did in about 10 years. It's about fucking time the American government stopped being brainless tools with a false grudge over Cuba. Laughing out loud

Edit: Content of article lost/corrupted due to crazy formatting error, just click the link. Sticking out tongue

Edit 2: Sooo the wrong forum...


deludedgod
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I always thought US policy

I always thought US policy in Cuba was utterly bizarre to say the least. When Castro toppled Batista's government, the Americans were very uneasy because Castro claimed he intended to nationalize business interests in Cuba (such interests of course were essentially controlled by the Americans, for whom Cuba had been something of a plaything for the wealthy since the 1920s). So they decided that the best course of action was to try and kill the embryonic Cuban government by placing an embargo on it. Of course, that was ridiculous. While Castro hadn't (prior to that point) made any specific declaration of leaning toward a Marxist doctrine, the US embargo essentially propelled him into the arms of the USSR. The Soviets knew this was an opportunity they couldn't pass up. The Americans had essentially poured unlimited money into ICBM technology and consequently the USSR was lagging greatly in range capability. They could turn Western Europe into a burning wasteland if they wished, but they did not have the capacity to strike the continental US with ICBMs, whereas the Americans had the ability to strike Moscow. Leningrad, Odessa, etc. To have an ally and consequently a potential missile base 80 miles off the US would completely level the playing field. In other words, the fact that the Americans decided that they could smoke Castro out of his hole via economic sanctions essentially created the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cubans had no choice but to seek alliance with the USSR. The necessity of such an alliance was compounded by numerous CIA-backed assassination attempts on Castro. Then in 1961, before the missile crisis, they tried to topple Castro with an invasion by exiles at the Bay of Pigs, which might have worked had not Kennedy's commitment of American resources to it (especially in terms of air support, which he withdrew), been so half-hearted. The result was only a hardening of Cuban opinion toward the US and a consequently increased dependancy on the USSR. Then in 1962, Cuba became basically a pawn in the chess game between the superpowers when U2 spyplanes detected the construction of Soviet MRBM sites in Cuba, which brought the world to the brink of complete destruction, a fact which in turn was in turn largely a consequence of American attempts to dislodge the Cuban government. Put simply, the degree to which the Americans managed to achieve the opposite effect to that which they desired in Cuba, was astounding.

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Vastet wrote:U.S. seeks new

Vastet wrote:

U.S. seeks new beginning with Cuba

By Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service April 18, 2009

Full Article Here

Obama has now officially accomplished more in a few months than Bush did in about 10 years. It's about fucking time the American government stopped being brainless tools with a false grudge over Cuba. Laughing out loud

Agreed. Our government has been completely irrational over Cuba for almost 60 years.

Hopefully Obama restores full relations and trade sometime soon.

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My greatest hope is that

My greatest hope is that this will finally allow for a proper restructuring of Cuba's civil rights laws. Castro has said some optimistic things in the last 24 hours, and I'm hoping it's not just giddyness at such a major policy shift, but real intent to change.

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deludedgod wrote:which might

deludedgod wrote:

which might have worked had not Kennedy's commitment of American resources to it (especially in terms of air support, which he withdrew), been so half-hearted.

that whole invasion was wretchedly executed, particularly since the cubans more or less knew it was coming, possibly through a CIA leak.  of course kennedy couldn't back them up without losing the moral high ground of being able to say, "see, this was wholly an effort of the cuban people to dislodge a usurper."  plus the fact that international opinion just wouldn't have stood for such outright meddling (kennedy didn't have bush's hubris).

anyway, there are many people who have the opinion that kennedy himself was opposed to the idea of the invasion, but was maneuvered into giving his approval.  notably, castro himself apparently holds this opinion (see his recently published spoken autobiography).

i agree that the US ultimately forced cuba into the arms of the soviet union, but castro definitely made overtures to the soviets while he was still in the sierra maestra.  at that time, however, the soviets chose to support the official cuban communist party, with whom castro and his 26th of july movement were in rabid conflict.  on the other hand, castro also flirted with the US while in the sierra, and at that time the US flirted back a lot more than the soviets did (the US ended up virtually abandoning batista).

of all the US's stooges-esque blunders in cuban policy, operation mongoose has to be the best.  the CIA attempted to contract the mafia, most notably florida boss santos trafficante, to assassinate castro.  it seems, however, the mafia mostly just played the CIA for suckers, enjoying their get out of jail free card while it lasted, since they realistically decided that they'd never get another golden shot at cuba, even if castro got knocked off.  among the quite possibly over 600 attempts on castro's life, the funniest is the attempt to poison his cigars.

btw, for anyone who thinks this is coming from conspiracy theory quacks, in 2007 the CIA declassified 705 pages of memos detailing this stuff (along with other stuff like slipping LSD to unsuspecting americans, wiretapping journalists, breaking into the homes of ex-CIA employees, etc. etc.).  

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Quote:that whole invasion

Quote:
that whole invasion was wretchedly executed, particularly since the cubans more or less knew it was coming, possibly through a CIA leak.

For my money, it was the KGB (who largely had American intelligence under their thumb until the very last years of the Soviet Union).

Quote:
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iwbiek
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Kevin R Brown

Kevin R Brown wrote:

Quote:
that whole invasion was wretchedly executed, particularly since the cubans more or less knew it was coming, possibly through a CIA leak.

For my money, it was the KGB (who largely had American intelligence under their thumb until the very last years of the Soviet Union).

yes, the KGB definitely warned of an impending invasion, specifically through agents osvaldo cabrera and "aragon."  i don't recall if they knew the exact landing spot, or if that's even public knowledge, but i remember reading that castro himself claims they were able to deduce it just by process of elimination. 

"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson