John McCain seems intent on embracing every failed policy of the Bush administration. Iraq, check; top end tax cuts, check. Privatization of Social Security, check. Unraveling employer based health care, check. And this weekend, McCain boldly informed the remnants of the Miami Cuban expatriots that he will sustain the most egregiously failed US policy of them all -- the Cuban embargo.
McCain was in his element, invoking freedom, denouncing oppression, invoking the threat Cuba poses to America; ah, 'twas like the salad days of the Cold War when he was young and easy.
But really, the Cuban embargo? Castro has now outlasted 9 US presidents. We've sponsored a failed invasion of the island, hired failed assassinations to take him out, tried to poison him so his beard would fall out (really), poisoned crops, fouled up bearings, and much else. And through thick and thin, missile crises and détente, Cold War and Soviet collapse, administration after administration has sustained an embargo against this little island 90 miles off our shores.
The embargo has helped, no doubt, to impoverish the Cuban people. It has also helped to make Castro a nationalist hero throughout Latin America and much of the world. It has done nothing for nearly five decades to advance democracy, civil liberties or capitalism in Cuba. Even its economic effects have diminished over time. It once cribbed tourism, and, once the Soviet Union went belly up, put a squeeze on oil. Now the Europeans and Canadians populate the Cuban beaches. And Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is happy to provide Cuba with the oil it needs.
Cuba is a small island, 90 miles off our shores. Its people are proud and nationalistic. They also get island fever. Their relatives across the straits let them know what they've been missing economically. There is little doubt that had the US normalized relations with Cuba, opened up trade, encouraged travel and exchanges, Cuba would have been transformed long ago. The détente that worked its magic on the Warsaw Pact countries in Eastern Europe would have been much more powerful in Cuba.
So why does McCain extol this tribute to folly? It's a good pander to the older generation of Cubans, still pining to see Castro's overthrow and to have a shot at taking back their old properties. But straight talking John McCain wouldn't adopt a goofy failed foreign policy just for political purposes, would he?
McCain's spokesperson, Nancy Pfotenhauer, tried to explain on Fox News:
We can't talk with Castro or lift the embargo until democracy descends on the island, she stated, because "the worst thing we can do is prematurely capitulate (emphasis added) and give them what they want the most without anything in return, and what they want the most is legitimacy, which, by the way, all that does is completely erode the confidence and the hopes of the people in Cuba who want freedom."
Can't "prematurely capitulate" after nearly five decades of a failed policy. We can't dash the "confidence and hopes" of the "people in Cuba who want freedom" who, no doubt, are biting their finger nails, hoping against hope that, after five decades, more of the same will somehow convince Castro to install a democracy.
We don't have an embargo with China, quite the contrary. Nor with Vietnam or Cambodia. We denounce Chavez as a dictator, but Venezuela's oil is a little too precious to fool around with. This isn't a matter of principle. It can only be explained as expressing a kind of purblind inertia. We do it because we can, who cares if it doesn't work.
The avid embrace of failed Bush policies seems to be a McCain hallmark, but this is simply ridiculous. Why not dub the embargo a failed policy of Democrats, blame it on Lyndon Johnson or Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton and go another way?
McCain ended his speech by noting that "For decades, in Republican and Democratic administrations alike, the United States has treated Latin America as a junior partner rather than as a neighbor, like a little brother rather than as an equal." Right, and the Cuba embargo is the symbol of that throughout the hemisphere. In his romance with the embargo, McCain scorns the opinions and policies of our allies and our neighbors, isolating America in the name of isolating Castro.
No one, I assume, except a handful of Miami Cuban intransigents actually cast a presidential vote on this issue. But doesn't the perfervid embrace of the ridiculous say something about McCain's qualifications to lead this country forward?
There are similarities and differences between them. They both interpret facts in their own ways and they both share past histories of very modest relevance, with few notable events worth mentioning.
“Did you really mean that if you are elected president the US would remain in Iraq for 100 years?”
“Finding those weapons of mass destruction that you said were in Iraq is going to take at least 70 years, I figure’
“Hell, John, how old will you be by then?”
“If you are worrying about my retirement package, relax Mister President. I have a few nest eggs here and there, you know”
The President nodded and said:
“Who would you select as Vice President?”
“How about Joe Lieberman?”’
“Naw. He’s too old. You need a young cowboy. How about my brother Jeb?”
“Not a bad idea. Does he know where the weapons of mass destruction are?’
Sen. Obama does have a Florida problem but he will never get votes from many Cuban Americans. Rather he has a problem with older, less educated Americans. He can mend fences in Florida by backing a compromise on Florida's delegation. Otherwise, he can kiss Florida's electoral votes goodbye. He does not need Florida to win in November, but it would be a big help, especially if Pennsylvania goes for Senator McCain.
SO what if we lifted the embargo?
Who cares anymore. The Cuban people would love to be able to see their relatives, and talk with them and what the hell?
We do tons of business with a country that is a thousands times more repressive, CHINA and I have yet to see any chants to start embargoing China?
This embargo is pure idiocy.
On the lighter side some observations. You can't get a Cuban sandwich in Cuba. They don't know what it is. They don't have Cuban bread as we know it in Miami. It's more like Italian bread or French bread. Cuban coffee is actually imported from Brazil.
As strange as it may sound, I believe Fidel is an agent of the U.S. Years ago I asked a CIA buddy of mine why the U.S. tolerated Castro and communism ninety miles off the coast of the U.S. and he told me that there were people close to Fidel who were providing intelligence about Russian intentions. I think the U.S made a deal with Fidel that we would leave him in power as long as he continues to provide Russian and Chinese intelligence.
Unless we change the core principles of our foreign policy and stop being an imperialist nation, we will continue to get our tits in the wringer. It is disgusting to watch our politicians pander to the mean streak of jingoism and nationalism that is in our collective DNA, and at the same time kow tow to the business interests that are the real beneficiaries of our imperialist foreign policy. The Cuban embargo benefits the sugar industry in south Florida and the Bacardi rum family. It has meant hundreds of millions of dollars to them and untold suffering on the Cuban people.
Here's how it works: some Cuban guy in Miami hires an attorney who "incorporates" a non-profit, meaning spends about a thousand dollars to create a fictitious entity. Call it something like "Cubans Against Castro." Then the same Cuban guy writes to his local Republican politicians and tell them his organization "represents" millions of Cubans, and desperately needs funding to fight communism. The Republicans sell that same pile of crap in Congress, all the politicians of course vote for anti-communist funding. The Cuban guy gets millions of dollars (every year), and kicks back a percentage to his Republican friends. And pretty soon the Cuban guy's brother does the same thing.
Millions of dollars of taxpayer money has been stolen every year, sent to immigrants from Cuba who get 12 of their friends to parade around once/year saying "We hate Castro," and the rest of the money is used by them to buy up all the real estate in Miami and run private social clubs (bars) for their friends. It's a con. It needs to end. These people have been in this country for 50 years in some cases. Get a job. Stop taking my money.