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Posted on 03/03/2002 6:26:29 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Edited on 04/13/2004 1:39:16 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
In Beijing, Bush called China our ''partner.'' Cuba officially is our ''enemy.'' Why?
Because a small number of powerful exiles in South Florida cow our politicians into keeping the crazy Cuban policy. That was designed to castrate Fidel Castro and has failed for more than 40 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at usatoday.com ...
The enemy of freedom: Al Neuharth, founder of Freedom Forum, Salutes Elian
Media Research Center's in depth study using the media's own words: Back to the "Peaceable" Paradise: Media Soldiers for the Seizure of Elian
Al Neuharth: Most U.S. citizens are denied their constitutional right to travel to Cuba.
A special ''license'' from the U.S. Treasury Department is possible, but very difficult to get.
Why doesn't Castro let Cubans freely travel? Maybe Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today daily newspaper and the Freedom Forum should come down on Castro's communist oppression. Maybe all the news personalities that sit on the board of Al Neuharth's Freedom Forum need to come clean on why they pushed Elian back into Castro's arms.
Vicki Huddleston Q&A: Veteran leader speaks about dissidents, Castro and the U.S. role--[Excerpt]
Q: Should travel restrictions to Cuba be lifted?
A: The problem with the lifting of travel restrictions is that the Cubans control it because they issue the visas. They can put quotas. They can decide to allow only the tourists going to Varadero and Cayo Coco and ensure they have very little contact with the Cuban people. And all that will do, initially, is fill the government coffers and build up the regime. It's ironic because what you need is for the government to respond to the current economic crisis by opening up, by letting Cubans own and operate their own businesses, by letting them invest, letting them stay at hotels. [In Cuba,] the economy is shrinking. It is too dependent on tourism and remittances. Their way of fixing the problem is to fill up the hotels. A far preferable way . . . would be to grow the economy by letting the people invest in their community by starting small businesses -- not just restaurants and taxis and services, but also . . . creating products. You have natural capitalists in Cuba, and the proof of that is in the cars they have and how they take care of them. If allowed to work independently, they would create wealth through their own labor . . . [End Excerpt]
Furthermore, given the fact that China has 14 million in slave labor camps and executes thousands of citizens every year, what is more evil about China than Cuba? China has nuclear weapons aimed at US cities. Cuba does not.
The embargo has not worked in Cuba. Please give us a rational reason for continuing the policy.
Because there isn't enough slave labor in Cuba to keep Nike's, et al's, profits high?
But to your question. Why should the American taxpayers foot the bill for trade with Castro, giving tacit approval to his regime
and freeing up his ill gotten gains (90% of all wages) to sponsor international terrorism?
What do you see happening if the embargo is lifted?
Trade is a two way street and is also a fundamental right of being alive. The Congress doesn't have the right to prohibit trade and I defy you to find that power listed anywhere in Article 1 Section 8 where their power is defined.
There is no taxpayer cost to trading with Cuba other than the goods and services that they might purchase.
If the rationale that is posited about trade with China is correct (that it actually helps bring China into relations with the world and in effect "corrupts" their communist ideals) then the same can be said for Cuba. Turning a communist nation into a capitalist nation is bad why?
Why hasn't this happened before now? Castro can trade with the rest of the world. Many countries did.
Second, I see Castro's biggest excuse for his failure taken off the table.
He can substitute another one. Who's going to object?
Castro's main argument against the US for 40 years has been the Embargo. He is 100% PRO-Embargo.
Maybe now you can defend the Embargo, the one Castro relies on and supports more than any other person on earth.
This guy had no problem making the switch over to capitalism -- he was smart and had a great work ethic. According to him, about 70% of Cubans hate their government. The school teachers are all communists and the people know it and secretly think they're nuts. The pro-government rallies are all staged events with forced participation.
At least this is so according to this fellow, and he seemed abundantly trustworthy to me. He was completely untouched by any government communist indoctrination. He was an independant thinker, skeptical of the government, moral and hardworking -- the perfect conservative capitalist, really. If he's an indication of what Cubans are like, then I think Cuba must be just waiting to pop, in need only of a nudge in the right direction.
I'm not sure what to think about the embargo. I wish I had asked David what he thought about it. My feeling is that we should lift it, but I can also see that doing so might just enrich the government. I don't know. What keeps the Cuban people complacent, and how could it be undermined?
Apparently you haven't been following this very closely. Cubans are not permitted to engage in "self enrichment" and Castro does not work on a cash and carry basis. Castro expects the goods up front and gives his IOU. Castro has said he won't "trade" with the U.S. until he can get the deals "financed." Let me tell you Demigog, that means we, the consumers and the taxpayers (if the loans are backed by the govt.) will foot the bill.
Here's one man that is currying Castro's favor.
Venezuela · Chavez has insisted that oil sales continue to Cuba, despite an unpaid $97 million bill for past sales.--Source
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