“The only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country,” Rubio said, predicating $100 million in aid on regime change. Maybe the Cuban people know how well U.S. promises did for Puerto Rico. This is an extremely corrupt U.S. administration, and they care little to nothing about the Cuban people, merely how to line their wallets and boost their egos.
The “maximum pressure” approach against Cuba has failed and it's completely independent of whether you support the regime or not. Forcing an entire population to live without basic needs like power, food, and water is not a geopolitical leverage anymore. It is a human tragedy. Real superpowers should project strength through magnanimity instead of suffocating millions of civilians.
This is the second message of yours on Cuba that completely misses the story. COMPLETELY. You are acting like Cuba is just failing due to its economic policies, or that this is just business as usual and the US should come and bail them out. THE US IS THE CAUSE OF THIS. A complete energy blockade on a country will destroy that country, any country. You say the US doesn't want another quagmire. This is a quagmire, where people will starve and die due to the direct cruelty of the US government. This is another case of Americans sitting there thinking they are a force of good in the world and brushing over the horrific actions they are taking. I expect better from you, you are normally well aware of what is going on in the world. This US regime is cruel, criminal and a stain on an already brutal latin American US history.
Everything the Prof said about US magnanimity is true, but another motivation for the Marshall Plan was to prevent the Soviets absorbing W. Europe without moving even one T 34, just by supporting Communist Parties and front organizations to exploit peoples' hunger and lack of hope. Communists win the rist election and see no need for any others. When the Italian Communist Party looked like it would win the post war elections, CIA and MI 6 pulled every dirty trick to insure that centrists won.
Our Cuba policy is cruel, but is unlikely that trump and lil marco will relent (cruelty comes naturally to bullies). It is equally unlikely that the Cuban people will find the guns to eliminate their oppressors. Our Hard Cuba policy has failed for 66 years. The brief Obama soft didnt have a chance to prove its efficacy but how could it have softened Havanna's Hard Men? There is no good policy. The only option is to tell the Hard Men that as long as they dont try to spread their regime in this hemisphere, we will not declare the entire Cuban nation Personna Non gratta, and they can evolve their country as they see fit without US malevolence, or even US aid if that continues to be politically impossible. R 11
I suspect trump will order a few strikes in an attempt to make a big show of cruelty. But just because he promises financial aid, in no way means Cubans will get more than a few rolls of paper towels thrown into the water near the docks.
History is full of "what ifs" and I think a very under-appreciated one is that at the end of WWII the US not only gave aid and loans to its former enemies but, as the sole nuclear power at the time, refrained itself from trying to conquer the whole world, militarily. What if Truman had gone the way of Gengis Khan, Alexander Magnus, etc - conquering other nations just because, well, that's what you do with armies?
“The only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country,” Rubio said, predicating $100 million in aid on regime change. Maybe the Cuban people know how well U.S. promises did for Puerto Rico. This is an extremely corrupt U.S. administration, and they care little to nothing about the Cuban people, merely how to line their wallets and boost their egos.
The “maximum pressure” approach against Cuba has failed and it's completely independent of whether you support the regime or not. Forcing an entire population to live without basic needs like power, food, and water is not a geopolitical leverage anymore. It is a human tragedy. Real superpowers should project strength through magnanimity instead of suffocating millions of civilians.
The US did demand European countries pay their debts to the US after WWI, so not as magnanimous as Scott suggests. Plus that lead to WWII.
This is the second message of yours on Cuba that completely misses the story. COMPLETELY. You are acting like Cuba is just failing due to its economic policies, or that this is just business as usual and the US should come and bail them out. THE US IS THE CAUSE OF THIS. A complete energy blockade on a country will destroy that country, any country. You say the US doesn't want another quagmire. This is a quagmire, where people will starve and die due to the direct cruelty of the US government. This is another case of Americans sitting there thinking they are a force of good in the world and brushing over the horrific actions they are taking. I expect better from you, you are normally well aware of what is going on in the world. This US regime is cruel, criminal and a stain on an already brutal latin American US history.
Everything the Prof said about US magnanimity is true, but another motivation for the Marshall Plan was to prevent the Soviets absorbing W. Europe without moving even one T 34, just by supporting Communist Parties and front organizations to exploit peoples' hunger and lack of hope. Communists win the rist election and see no need for any others. When the Italian Communist Party looked like it would win the post war elections, CIA and MI 6 pulled every dirty trick to insure that centrists won.
Our Cuba policy is cruel, but is unlikely that trump and lil marco will relent (cruelty comes naturally to bullies). It is equally unlikely that the Cuban people will find the guns to eliminate their oppressors. Our Hard Cuba policy has failed for 66 years. The brief Obama soft didnt have a chance to prove its efficacy but how could it have softened Havanna's Hard Men? There is no good policy. The only option is to tell the Hard Men that as long as they dont try to spread their regime in this hemisphere, we will not declare the entire Cuban nation Personna Non gratta, and they can evolve their country as they see fit without US malevolence, or even US aid if that continues to be politically impossible. R 11
I suspect trump will order a few strikes in an attempt to make a big show of cruelty. But just because he promises financial aid, in no way means Cubans will get more than a few rolls of paper towels thrown into the water near the docks.
Exactly!
History is full of "what ifs" and I think a very under-appreciated one is that at the end of WWII the US not only gave aid and loans to its former enemies but, as the sole nuclear power at the time, refrained itself from trying to conquer the whole world, militarily. What if Truman had gone the way of Gengis Khan, Alexander Magnus, etc - conquering other nations just because, well, that's what you do with armies?
USAID was our premier soft power agency and now we only have Trump’s “quid pro quo” power of the State Dept.