Posted on 08/01/2006 12:53:24 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Sister city activists and other Madisonians with ties to Cuba said today they fear the Bush administration will use the transition in power from Fidel to Raul Castro as the occasion to activate a plan to replace that nation's communist system.
They said such a move could lead to war.
The Associated Press reported today that Bush told a Miami radio station on Monday, prior to the announcement of Castro's illness, "If Fidel Castro were to move on because of natural causes, we've got a plan in place to help the people of Cuba understand there's a better way than the system in which they've been living under."
Ricardo Gonzalez, a former Madison alderman who was born and raised in Cuba and founded the Madison-Camaguey Sister City Association, said today he was taken by surprise by Castro's illness and that he also is troubled by the reports prepared by the U.S. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, which is headed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"(This) is nothing more than a plan by the United States for the annexation of Cuba. A section of the plan is being kept secret about what the U.S. might do in event of the death or incapacity of Fidel Castro," Gonzales maintained. "We will see if this administration chooses this moment to put into action this secret plan for transition.
"This is a wrong policy that will not work. I don't know what the U.S. can do other than military intervention, which at this point would be unthinkable, considering that we have our hands full in the Middle East. We ought to pursue a policy of engagement with the Cuban government that will lead to an improvement of relations and peace."
Robert Kimbrough, a retired UW-Madison English professor and prominent local Socialist who has gone to Cuba 16 times with Madison delegations, is also worried by the two reports.
"It is disgusting. The 2004 report said, 'We pledge to help the Cuban people, and a new transition Cuban government, as you move away from the totalitarian Communist dictatorship and toward a free and representative democracy.'
"On July 10, the final report to the president is specific that when Fidel goes they will put this into motion," Kimbrough said. "The president of the National Assembly in Cuba has labeled this as no less than a declaration of war.
"My question is how our wonderful, sophisticated government will respond. They have asked for $80 million to get the transition to democracy started, beginning with $20 million right away. They recommended this to the president and he accepted the report."
Self-government: Dr. Bernard Micke, a UW Health physician who heads the Wisconsin Medical Project that takes medical supplies to a hospital in Cuba, said today that, personally, he has concerns about possible U.S. action.
"The Cubans are capable of governing themselves whether Castro is there or not. It is not a dictatorship to the degree that our government would like to paint it. This is a very functional government at the local and national levels," Micke said, stressing that he was speaking as an individual, not for the completely non-political humanitarian Medical Project.
"The United States should not be meddling. We would certainly not want some other country to have a plan in place as to how to run our country if something happened here. That is a very imperialistic approach, that we have some God-given right to have a hand in Cuba's affairs."
On course: Robert Skloot, a UW-Madison professor of theater, drama and Jewish studies who has visited Cuba five times and taken students there once, said it is premature to say what might happen in Cuba.
"Things will be worked out in the next few weeks. The succession has been decided many years ago and so it is taking its course as to what should happen if Castro is incapacitated," Skloot said.
Regarding any possible U.S. involvement, he said, "It would be disastrous and lead to more complications than the United States is either able to deal with or would want to do in the world community."
They both simply have no cultural, philosophical, tribal sense of what freedom is.. pretty much like literally every illegal and legal alien allowed to emmigrate to the United States in the last 30 maybe 40 years..
Must be why the federal government run education system forgave the teaching of civics at least 30 years ago...
Wonder if there are three people in Madison, Wisconsin that even knows that Socialism is slavery by givernment..
speaking of extinct soon, it ain't easy being a big dumb beast, chuck hagel comes to mind.
That 'marry'm up' scheme is a keeper, btw. ;-)
The first Greater One-horned Rhinoceros ever displayed in Australia makes its public debut at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, December 2001. Three rare one-horned rhinos were killed and one was wounded by poachers in areas around Chitwan National Park in southwest Nepal in the past week, park officials have said.(AFP/File/Greg Wood)
"It is not a dictatorship to the degree that our government would like to paint it."
Oh? What else would you call a one man rule that has had its boot on the neck of the Cuban people for forty-five years?
Badonkadonk!
I guess they have to get worked up over something till football season starts!
Evil Big Tobacco!
SIR MIX-A-LOT LYRICS "Baby Got Back" [Intro] Oh, my, god. Becky, look at her butt. It is so big. *scoff* She looks like, one of those rap guys' girlfriends. But, y'know, who understands those rap guys? *scoff* They only talk to her, because, she looks like a total prostitute, 'kay? I mean, her butt, is just so big. *scoff* I can't believe it's just so round, it's like, out there, I mean - gross. Look! She's just so ... black! [Sir Mix-a-Lot] I like big butts and I can not lie You other brothers can't deny That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist And a round thing in your face You get sprung, wanna pull out your tough 'Cause you notice that butt was stuffed |
I'm game... first thing I'm doing will be get down there and open a NAPA store in Havanna.
Then a recording studio, and record whats left of all the old salsa bands, then sell the cd's in Cracker Barrel.
Then I'm going surfing, before all the other surfers get there. Then there will have to be a bikini shop, for all the Cuban babes to shop at.
What a bunch a whiney commies. They have nothing to worry about (for now).
The US has no such intentions (for now). Besides, I understand that Karl Rove is on vacation this week. That means it is highly unlikely that he will name Fidel's successor until next week at the earliest.
OMG! Freedom is coming to Cuba?! No! This must be stopped!
(/sarcasm)
I visited Cuba in December of 2002.
One nice thing about being in Cuba is that it's easy to get a Cuban girl to stay with you for the duration. It makes for a very nice visit.
Whenever I went out with her to walk around, she would shy from it in fear of the secret police who would try and jail her for three years for fratenizing with a tourist.
So we would often stay in and watch the satellite television. It carried Univision, the US-based Spanish language TV channel which, among other things, carries these slick soap opera programs.
So I watched the soap operas, and they portrayed life as a whirl of designer dresses, limousines and enormous oceanfront mansions. I got the feeling very quickly that my Cuban girl thought all Americans lived like A. Jerrold Perenchio, who happens to be the majority owner of Univision, worth an estimated US$3 billion.
But what I thought was even more vivid was the commercials. I remember one with piles of toilet paper stacked to the skies, being beamed into a country where there is such a severe shortage of the stuff that you are given individual sheets of it.
So no, I'm afraid a dictatorship like Cuba is neither free nor efficient. You get the worst of both worlds.
The Cuban people showed me how impressively resiliant they are under incredible hardships, but I can only imagine how well they could do under an economy where their hard work would be rewarded, instead of illegal.
D
That's what will make the human "explosion" in Miami when Castro dies so amusing. The press will report it through gritted teeth, and the fellow-travelers will have to shut up and watch.
Anyone who wants to know the real Cuba should read the chapter on Cuba in PJ O'Rourke's "Eat the Rich."
How naive can you be? Do you really think that Karl Rove being out of town and Fidel Castro (peace be upon him) suddenly coming down with a fatal illness are coincidental?
They are really spending their time worrying about this?? Don't they have better things to think about, like reality?
If the Cuban medical system is so great then why does a Physician in Wisconsin have to take them charity supplies.
What will be fun is getting some real photo's out of Communist Hell.
Bush promised the Cubans' in Florida....in 2004 before the election...he'd free Cuba before he left office....I've been waiting so see if he'd keep that promise...;o) Looks like he will. Way to go W...!!!!
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