vacating Guantánamo and having your congress make an abject apology for occupying it all these years, that would be helpful....
What occupation? We signed a lease agreement in 1903 and have maintained it LEGALLY ever since. We still pay Cuba an annual rent for Guantanomo.
.... just a normal mother, from normal people, no position high in current hierarchy or anything .... she gets pretty candid once relaxed and familiar with you, and she allows that perhaps they could do better than Castro, but they sure as hell don't want John L O'Sullivan either
Yeah.. and she'll never have the chance to find out if they could "do better" since obviously political leaders like your own will do nothing to give them that chance... By not constanting pressuring Castro for electoral and political openess, Canada, and others like it, effectively lend tacit legitimacy to Castro's regime.
And the last thing Cubans need fear is "manifest destiny".. The US hasn't applied such imperialistic rhetoric since the 1800s, and only did so because that was the "name of the game" at that point in history.
As for Plattismo, bear in mind that Spain ruled Cuba at that time. It was a colony of a European empire. So when Hearst made his statement, he had the benefit of knowing that he was only encouraging the taking of something someone else really didn't have the right to possess and which the US didn't want represented in the American hemisphere.
You and i are not far apart on what we'd like to see for Cuba, not at all maybe .... it's on how cubanos get to that stage though,
They will never get to that stage. Castro will die and one of his family members will take over, just as happened in Syria when Assad died. It is my fear that Castro will attempt to create a dynasty, not just temporary dictatorship. And should he not do so, the power vacuum will ensure that civil war breaks out.
So yes.. how that change eventually occurs is an important question. And what will we do to be prepared to assist the Cubans?? What will the international community do to respond??
And will any of it eventually make a difference to the Cuban people?
Hawk |
