[pgyanke]

Maybe I missed something but the facts presented in the article don't show indifference to the Cubans' plight. These Cubans HIGHJACKED a boat (a crime) and were not allowed to enter the U.S. Knowing they would be killed by Castro when repatriated, the government argued for a nonlethal sentence.

What's the result if we reward people who commit crimes to enter our country? Would that really be the right thing to do? I think the people quoted in the article are Bush-bashers from the start, not recently-aggrieved supporters as the article would have us believe.

[MEG33]

You hammered that nail perfectly.The last hijackers did get the death sentence and if I recall It took less than a month before it was carried out.

[technomage]

What's the result if we reward people who commit crimes to enter our country?

Uh, Kalifornicatia?

[ExpandNATO]

These Cubans HIGHJACKED a boat

You can only hijack a boat that has other people aboard. The article says that they stole the boat (of course Cuba being a Communist country they cannot own their own boat).

What's the result if we reward people who commit crimes to enter our country?

Every single person who has fled from a Communist country has committed at least one crime. You going to send them all back?

As for me and other critics being Bush-bashers, sorry but I have bashed just about every president (starting with Nixon) in my lifetime about the nonsense of sending a refugee of any sort back to a Communist country.

[snooker]

If we agreed with HIJACKING as a way to get into the US a whole raft of problems could be triggered, and not just Cuban. How about ... "I wasn't going to fly the plane into a building, I was just trying to get into the country and get asylum".

This is a tough call, but I think Bush got it right.

The Chevy thing, not sure. But you could trigger a mass migration by encouraging people to jump in the water drift for a while and hope to get picked up. More trouble. Dead Cubans floating around isn't good for anyone. Boat loads of people landing on our shores isn't good either ...

So maybe the policy as it stands is best. They reach shore, they're put through the system.

[Texas_Dawg]

These Cubans HIGHJACKED a boat (a crime) and were not allowed to enter the U.S.

You act like a hi-jacking from Cuba is the same as one from the U.S. or somewhere else in the free world. Do you not think everyone being "hijacked" on that boat was not thrilled they might be making it to America? I was in Cuba at the time this was going on and asked several Cubans I know what they would do were they on a boat or plane that made it to America via an unexpected hi-jacking one day. These people all said without a second thought that they would stay in America, even with their families (including children) remaining in Cuba. As one put it, he would be much better help to his child in America than he would be in Cuba.