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Opening Arguments

Past talkers

 

Here's a stunner:

The spiritual leader of the world's Roman Catholics and the brothers who have carried Cuba along an increasingly solitary Communist path mixed warm smiles with the hard language of their respective camps during Pope Benedict XVI's three-day tour of Cuba.

Often, the polite octogenarians at the heart of this religio-political drama appeared to be talking past each other, the pontiff using biblical parables about cruel, long-dead kings, the Castros their customary language of revolution and defiance to American dominance.

In his respectful send-off, President Raul Castro acknowledged in the visit's greatest understatement: "We do not think alike on all matters."

A Christian and two Communists "talk past each other" and "do not think alike on all matters"? Guess the bitter divide isn't unique to America, huh? I think the pope is right, btw, about our embargo being stupid. All it has done is let the Castros use the U.S. as a conventient scapegoad for their own failures.

Comments

RAG
Thu, 03/29/2012 - 2:05pm

According to "One Hell of a Gamble" 1997, Raul was the true communist and Fidel fell in because it served his purpose.

Khrushchev sent the missiles to Cuba to leverage us to remove our missiles from Turkey.  That worked.

The Castro brothers wanted to launch those missiles against us.  Khrushchev didn't

When Castro's Cuba compensates for all the property taken from the Cuban exiles, then maybe something could be worked out between us.

Until then, they will enjoy living in 1960.

Harl Delos
Fri, 03/30/2012 - 11:36am

RAG, there wasn't anyone exiled from Cuba.  Those people voluntarily left the country, rather than being exiled by the government.

You can't get a passport to leave the US if you have certain unpaid obligations, and Cuba has similar restrictions.  If you manage to leave anyway, your assets can be seized to pay your obligations - which is exactly the situation the self-styled "cuban refugees" find themselves in.

Our anti-Cuba initiative are the child of the rabid anti-communism fears of the 1950s.  If Castro had been a right-wiing dictator, we'd have the same kind of good relations we maintained with Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic.

Under Batista, the crime rate was incredibly high, and there were no schools or hospitals in rural Cuba, which is to say, almost everywhere. 

If there is any evidence that "ecenomic sanctions" have ever had their intended purpose, it's well-hidden.  Fidel and Raul can point to the embargo as an excuse for their economic shortcomings.  It's well past time to put Joe McCarthy's bogey man to bed, and stop propping up the Castro brothers.

 

RAG
Fri, 03/30/2012 - 1:23pm

I realize the Cubans in Florida exiled themselves.  Honestly, I don't know if their property was confiscated before or after they fled.  Communism was their bogey man.

If the Cuban embargo is lifted, how does this un-prop the Castro brothers?

Harl Delos
Fri, 03/30/2012 - 6:00pm

If the embargo is gone, the Castro brothers won't be able to blame it for their shortcomings.

My opinions are colored somewhat by my definition of "democracy".  I think it means that people get to rule themselves.  Those who define it as doing things as Amercan corporations want, will probably have other feelings.  I'm sure American tobacco farmers would rather that Cuban tobacco imports be banned.

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