The resignation of Fidel Castro as Cuba's president sadly won't change anything for United States policy makers.
For half a century, the U.S. has dedicated itself to the overthrow of the socialist regime for the simple reason that it has refused to obey orders.
As MIT linguistics professor and political activist Noam Chomsky has observed, international affairs are run like the mafia. The most powerful actors demand obedience and will dispatch their minions to dispose of those who dare to resist.
Cubans dared to resist. The revolutionary movement of 1959 overthrew the U.S.-backed dictator Batista and instituted a series of reforms, which, contrary to propaganda, led to a marked improvement in the lives of regular Cubans, including one of the best health care systems in the world, free education and agrarian reform.
Once Cuba began nationalizing U.S.-based industries, the U.S. became increasingly annoyed that Cuba was deciding what to do with its own economy instead of subordinating themselves to the master and its corporate constituency.
Cuba's independence soon came to be too much for U.S. planners. In 1960, President Eisenhower authorized the CIA to train and equip Cuban exiles in an attempt to overthrow the regime. This was before Cuba had any significant ties to the Soviet Union, thus dispelling the made-up notion that the U.S. was simply trying to undermine Cuba because it was receiving support from the Soviets.
In fact, it was a series of U.S. actions that led Cuba to consolidate relations with the Soviet Union. CIA Director Allen Dulles urged Britain not to provide any arms to Cuba in the hope that this "might lead the Cubans to ask for Soviet or Soviet bloc arms," allowing the U.S. to portray tiny Cuba as a security threat. As Cuba began trade relations with the Soviet Union, the U.S. became enraged and cut off all diplomatic relations with the island.
After Kennedy decided to invade Cuba (a war crime) using trained Cuban exiles in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the Kennedy administration instituted Operation Mongoose -- a vicious terrorist campaign that was headed by liberal icon Robert Kennedy. According to documents that have been made publicly available, Operation Mongoose would consist of economic warfare, paramilitary operations and sabotage in the hopes of undermining the Castro regime, and creating a situation that would justify U.S. military intervention (one of the reports is titled "Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba").
Robert Kennedy informed the CIA that overthrowing Castro was "the top priority in the United States Government." In the aforementioned documents, Operation Mongoose operations chief Edward Lansdale explained that the success of the program would lead to "decisive U.S. military intervention." The documents also mention plans to "lure or provoke Castro ... into an overt hostile reaction against the United States," providing a pretext for a U.S. invasion.
The most disturbing part of all the documents includes considerations for the U.S. to "develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington." This "terror campaign" could also be "pointed at Cuban refugees seeking haven in the United States," including sinking "a boatload of Cubans enroute to Florida." They also considered an option to "blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo and blame Cuba" to repeat the "Remember the Maine" incident.
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To me you lost all credibility the second you took talking points from Michael Moore. How many people fly from Canada and England (other socialized medical systems) to Cuba for medical treatment every year? Very few because the are all coming to the United States. You make Cuba sound like such a nice place to live, but forget to mention how anyone who speaks out against the government is prosecuted and killed like in any communist nation. Its quite simple- how many people every year risk everything to sail across the gulf of Mexico in makeshift boats to get out of Cuba? And I would be willing to bet they are not leaving because of agrarian reform. It just bugs me when people in a newspaper, the pinnacle of free speech in the freest country on earth right about how great a communist country is that can't even afford its own citizen 10% of that right. What a joke.
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You throw words like terrorist, atrocity and war crime around pretty easily. What kills me about columns like this is that you don't back any of what you say up with sources. I could not find anything to corroborate your linkage to Richard Nixon and terrorist attacks in Cuba. It also appears that you are misstating the facts on Luis Posada Carriles. Bush's Justice Department urged the court not to release Carriles to no avail. As far as deporting him to Venezuela or Cuba, it is American policy not to deport people to countries we know torture people. I'm sure you're against rendition because of the torture angle – you can't have it both ways. Funny thing about this whole issue is that the only people in large numbers who seem to think that Cuba is a paradise aren't Cubans. They're American liberals.
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Well said, Engrish! Your last comment strikes at the heart of the matter - American liberals over the last 10 to 15 years have grown increasingly more adoring of Cuba because they feel it represents the pinnacle of Communist achievement they had always hoped America would enjoy. That, I assume, is why Mr. Morris chooses to use Noam Chomsky as proof of his arguments. . .
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Hey, I take exception to that, Kyle!
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Apologies, Gabe. Your reasoning on international matters, though I tend to disagree with parts of it, is generally speaking pretty solid and I don't think I'd ever confuse you with a supporter of Communism. I believe you referred to yourself once as a 'liberal internationalist - ' an apt title, from what I've seen of your writing. Really, I was talking more about the so-called 'intellegencia' - those of the ilk of Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, and others, who (though very intelligent in their own right) tend to look only at the 'bright side' of Communist governments and overlook the 'dark side' (and I would charge that their certainly is one!), and I don't think you fit that characterization.
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Yes, a liberal internationalist is what I am, straight from the FDR school of international relations: alliances, collective defense and support for liberty and self-determination. I support democracy, even when that democracy decides things we don't like, and I support positive engagement through dialog, but backed up with credible force when it's merited.
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Well-written Mr. Morris. Your closing argument really wraps it up. "Castro represents a successful defiance of the U.S….". In other words a bad example that must not be left unpunished. As for the readers attacks against Chomsky I would like to point out that he, to the best of my knowledge, has ever been a champion of Cuba, North Viet Nam, Iraq, or any of our supposed adversaries, but rather critical of the US foreign policy that erodes those countries' right to self determination. I suggest some of your readers pick up any of his books (for the first time I am sure) and confirm that.
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Ty, what else did you expect from Brett Morris? He's just another product of the university left movement. It's been apparent since the age of stupidity rang bells in the 1960s that the majority of students in universities across America don't have any common sense when it comes to world events. Brett Morris has shown this by calling the U.S. a terrorist country. What a retard he is.
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