The truth on the other hand, is the unshakable reality that has driven every sanction, every sabotage attempt, and every assassination plot since 1959: Cuba is a threat only to an idea. It is a threat to the imperial doctrine that a small, poor nation in America’s ‘backyard’ must not be allowed to choose socialism, to provide free healthcare and education, and homes to live without the permission of Washington.
For this sin of self-determination, the crime of building a society where capital is not god, Cuba has been punished with the most enduring economic siege in modern history. This is not an ‘embargo’, which I consider to be a sterile, political term. It is a total blockade, designed to constrict and cripple. It is enforced by a plethora of laws with names like the Helms-Burton Act, which terrorises foreign companies from trading with the Island and allows the US to seize ships in international waters. Its goal, as US politician Robert Torricelli once admitted, was to…
‘Wreak havoc’.
British and Soviets had their famines in India, Ireland and Ukraine. Americans need their own Holodomor
I had no problem with Cuba. Nice place to visit in winter. No Americans.
“People in socialist countries starve because we starve them”
Why the quotes?
I’m saying the US basically says this.
For those who say it’s a hoax, look up videos of any Cuban on YouTube and turn on the subtitles.
I hope and pray that the Cuban people stand together and persevere. May this be the final nail in the empire of evil.
I guess this is the best approach.
And because all of this shit they have been throwing on the Cuba, they can claim socialism doesn’t work.
That’s definitely a bonus for them
I would say resisting the 66 years of unceasing hybrid warfare from the biggest superpower in the world right next door is pretty good sign of resilient and working system.
I think, based on conversations I have with people in real life and read online, that the people in the US haven’t challenged the 60 years of propaganda about Cuba, and believe it a totalitarian nightmare dictatorship.
I have a close friend who went to Cuba for ecological research (did you know they still have intact reefs) a few years ago, and when they would tell people they were going to Cuba, the most common reaction was a fearful “that’s scary” and a confused, almost accusatory “why”.
I don’t think they realize that everyone else can just go to Cuba, it’s only the blue US passport and a bunch of old white guys, and probably now more Cuban Americans, with their fear of communism and land reform stopping them from enjoying a very nice bottle of state owned rum and an experience of how other people live.
I’m glad other countries have been stepping up to help the people there, the Cuban people deserve happy and comfortable lives, and we clearly don’t have the appetite to stop starving them of that right now. Until we shake that propagandized view, I don’t imagine that will change either.
Obama I think floated an end to the shitbaggery during his second term. Like anything he proposed, it was stonewalled.
I think he actually lifted the travel embargo and aimed to normalize relations but the bazillionaires and still angry exbazillionaire diaspora faces started melting so 2016 was the end of that.
It is essentially genocide.
I don’t know about that. Genocides don’t usually take 80 years, as the population grows. I don’t think that fits the description.
Worse than what Israel is doing to Palestine?
Not yet, but it’s a similar action with a similar goal
Iran
Not really. Call me when they’re bombing hospitals and schools.
So, it’s only similar when it’s the same? Words have meaning, you know?
No? That’s a weird deflection from the misery of a people, to point at other miserable people and imply, look they’re worse off so we can ignore everyone else. Or are you just lost, read a different piece, and replied to the wrong thing.
What you’re doing sure looks like deflection using whataboutism, but why deflect something you’re not at fault for? You don’t have to help the US government defend their actions.
Both are worse and coming to USA.
Cuba is terrible; its own allies have turned their backs on it and dug its own grave.
Cuba is absolutely gorgeous, and it’s a shame that the conservatives have been lying about what we are doing, at their directives for the last 50 years.
I dunno, maybe helping to almost end the world in 1962 plays a small part in it.
Maybe study the whole story before writing. From Wikipedia:
In 1961, the U.S. started deploying 15 Jupiter IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missiles) nuclear missiles near Izmir, Turkey, which directly threatened cities in the western sections of the Soviet Union. These missiles were regarded by President John F. Kennedy as being of questionable strategic value; a nuclear submarine was capable of providing the same cover with both stealth and superior firepower. In the late 1950’s missile technology was well developed in the field of medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs), as opposed to ICBMs (intercontinental-ballistic missiles) which could not be kept in a state of readiness at all times.
MRBMs represented only a small portion of the total American nuclear arsenal, but still much larger than the U.S.S.R.'s. Soviet strategists realized that some nuclear equality could be efficiently reached by placing missiles in Cuba. Soviet MRBMs on Cuban soil, with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 statute miles), could threaten Washington, DC and around half of the U.S. SAC bases (of nuclear-armed bombers), with a flight time of under twenty minutes. In addition, the U.S.'s radar warning systems oriented toward USSR would have provided little warning of a launch from Cuba.
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had publicly expressed his anger at the Turkish deployment, and regarded the missiles as a personal affront. The deployment of missiles in Cuba - the first time Soviet missiles were moved outside the USSR - is commonly seen as Khrushchev’s direct response to the Turkish missiles.
Oh Lord, he broke out fedopedia…
I am aware of the whole story. It still doesn’t change the fact that they were complicit in almost ending the world. I will say that it doesn’t excuse America’s current behavior.
Maybe if the US hadn’t tried to invade Cuba the year before they wouldn’t have requested Soviet assistance. Also maybe the US shouldn’t have placed nukes in Turkey if it didn’t want the soviets to do something similar.
So you support Chinese reclamation of Taiwan
If only Cuba had been the sole player in that saga. Instead of a pawn between the USSR and USA.
True, true, true…
Except for Castro publicly going on about how Russia should have never backed down.
Removed by mod
“Autarky doesn’t work” is something that all economists - from the Marxist to the Austrian - agree on. Every country must exchange the commodities and resources it can produce for the ones it can’t. The large countries blessed with large populations and an abundance of resources (USA, Russia, et al) can get away with a bit better. But a small, resource-poor island with a centuries-long history of colonial exploitation? To imply that Cuba’s economic woes stem from anything other than being mostly cut off from international trade strains credulity.
Do people think that criticizing Cuba makes you not a socialist? Is that the kind of life you want for yourself? (Eating from the garbage)
You are blaming the victim of US imperialism.
Cuba’s president can march with his people in the streets without needing security detail. Our politicians can’t.
That makes you similar to Noam Chomsky
What?
If we got to vote for it sure. But we have no voice. This is just assholes doing asshole things.
