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Politicians think just what this country needs
is another invasion of a smaller nation to spice up the campaign.
President George W. Bush saw his popularity surge in the polls
after his invasion of Iraq. He
likes to call himself the wartime president and has shown how quick he
can pull a trigger. He
showed the world he wasn’t at all hesitant to use America’s military
dominance to further his goals. At
one point, he even suggested he would use nuclear weapons in a first
strike. What good is a wartime president without a war? After the religious fanatic bin Laden sparked a holy war with the attack on the Twin Towers, Bush first attacked and invaded their asylum in Afghanistan. That wasn’t enough. He invaded Iraq on made to order intelligence charges. America is bogged down in Iraq with no end in
sight. Military personnel
who did their share are being called back.
Reservists and National Guard members are putting their lives on
hold to serve the military. As if that’s not enough, the Bush
administration keeps rattling its sabers at Cuba. Why? Because
it’s a Communist country? Because
the people are suffering and want America to occupy the island and set
up a Democratic government? Many who hate and fear Communism don’t even
know what it is. People
want to overthrow Castro and “rescue” the people of Cuba but don’t
even know what kind of life is there. America has been involved with the island just
off the coast of Florida a long time.
In 1895, rebels began fighting for independence against their
mother country of Spain. American
President William McKinley sent the battleship USS Maine into the Havana
harbor as a show of force to protect American business interests.
It exploded February 15, 1898.
No one will ever know if it was a boiler or a mine. Yellow journalist publisher William Randolph
Hearst told his reporters on the scene to send him news of the war.
When they said there was no war in Cuba, he told them to send him
reports and he would give them a war.
McKinley prayed all one night for guidance on whether to go to
war or not. Americans love a good rousing slogan to carry
them into battle. The words
went out: “Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain.” McKinley went to war, one that lasted three
months and increased the American empire with the Philippines, Hawaii,
Puerto Rico and responsibility for Cuba. Corrupt governments became a way of life for
Cubans. A brief respite
came from 1933 to 1944 when a somewhat benign dictator named Batista
gave them a strong, efficient government.
He ruled through patronage, organized labor and the military.
It was a different story when he ruled again 1952 to 1959 when
terror became his method. American
mobsters had their share of the action. Fidel Castro was a student at the University of
Havana in 1945 and became involved with idealist students who began
organizing gangs. His work
culminated in 1959 with the overthrow of Batista.
His first major trip as the head of a new government was to
America and the United Nations where he wanted recognition and help from
the United States. Dwight Eisenhower was president and they rudely
ignored Castro. With no
where else to turn, Castro looked to the Soviet Union and the
uncomfortable relationship with the Communist world was cemented.
President John Kennedy tried an abortive invasion.
He couldn’t see that whatever Castro gave the Cuban people it
was better than what they had with Batista. Then there was the Cuban missile crisis.
No matter that Russian subs with atomic warheads were off the
American coast, the missile silos got the attention.
With that resolved, by America easing back on the rockets aimed
at Moscow, embargos became the next tool. It would take some befuddled bureaucrat to
explain how isolating a government makes it weaker.
While Khrushchev built a wall around Berlin, America built a wall
of ships around Cuba. The Berlin wall came down, not from fear of
atomic weapons because Russia could match us bomb for bomb. Communication brought it down, people seeing there was a
better life than communism waiting through capitalism. What has the wall around Cuba accomplished?
It has made Castro stronger, made the populace suffer.
American presidents spout rhetoric about the corruption and evils
in Cuba. But you would be a
lot safer walking down a street in Havana than in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Your health care would be better in Cuba than in Venezuela. Politicians court the Cuban vote in Florida and
rattle sabers to appeal to the entrenched group wanting to overthrow
Castro. Common sense is
disregarded. Communism in Cuba can be destroyed, not by force
of arms, but by communication. If
the embargo were lifted, Cuba’s communism would follow the way of the
Soviet Union and now China. The
ideals of communism dissolve in the reality and brightness of
capitalism.
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