Posted by
Rich on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 9:08:05 AM
Well Fidel Castro has stepped down but, unfortunately, not out. Communist Cuba is now under the iron hand of brother Raul.
The
biggest policy mistake made by any President was John F. Kennedy's
decision to abandon the Cuban freedom fighters at the Bay of Pigs. His
mistake brought us to the brink of WW III with the Cuban Missile Crisis
and has kept the people of Cuba under communist rule ever since. Over
the decades they have suffered under a failed Communist system. Castro
has not embraced capitalism at the expense of his people.
What
is interesting is the liberal media's love of Castro and hate of the
United States. You can already see it via their "concern for the people
of Cuba". In an article by a local liberal paper, "Castro out but not down" they call for us to "Lift the embargo".
Their
rationale is, "In light of the financial success experienced by many
Cubans who emigrated to the United States, economic engagement, rather
than punishment and isolation, seemed the more humane course and the
most likely strategy to have toppled Fidel. And, perhaps, the U.S.
could have filled a vacuum that has recently led Venezuela and China to
invest in Cuba....But for decades, America let dogma get in the way of
good sense, just as the former president of Cuba did."
Let's look briefly at recent history when we have economically engaged with dictators.
Let's
start with Adolf Hitler, we tried to appease him with the Sudetenland
and that led to WW II. We tried to appease Japan by looking the other
way when they invaded Korea and China and it led to Pearl Harbor. We
tried to appease Joseph Stalin with detente and it got us the Cold War.
Now let's look at more recent attempts at economically engaging dictators.
President
Clinton signed an agreement with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. We
gave them economic aid and oil to keep the North Korean people from
starving. The outcome, Kim kept the money for his cronies and millions
of his people starved to death or died in concentration camps. He
developed a nuclear weapon and sold the technology to Iran and other
nations.
How about the West and UN dealings with Saddam Hussein?
The UN Oil for Food Program was exactly what liberals call
"economically engaging". With the "economic engagement" money Saddam
built palaces, murdered and tortured his people. The program became
corrupt and Iraqis suffered. There was no food for the oil!
Today
we have another form of economic engagement going on with Venezuela and
Iran. The Western nations buy oil from these countries on the open
market. Billions flow into these countries. Do their dictators use
those monies to raise the economic standards of their people? Both
countries use their revenues to shore up their regimes and spread
communism and radial Islamic terrorism around the world.
We
engage economically every day with China and Russia. Both those
countries have used our "economic engagement" to become less
democratic, more confrontational, more militaristic and their people
suffer more and more.
The only thing dictators understand is
power and the use of power to get what they want. What the West must
do, led by the United States is, to confront this evil, not subsidize
it.
Liberals never learn from history. They constantly want to
"economically engage" with evil in hopes of appeasement. Consistently
we get the same result - our dollars are used against us, like they
were on 9/11.