Friday, July 21, 2006
Cuba - Invasion Fleet waits over the Horizon
-Sorry, more politics.
I've read in the guardian of the rather kind offer that the US is making with regard to their neighbours over the Florida Straits, the island of Cuba. No doubt thinking ahead, and mindful of the fact that the dictator of Cuba, Fidel Castro, enjoys his 80th birthday in August, and has recently been suffering fainting fits, his northern neighbour has thoughtfully decided to put aside some 63 million of Euros over the next two years so that the population of the island can come to terms with the possible loss of their leader and therefore plan "for change".
To assist in spending this rather lavish sum a "Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba" has been created to assist the cubans in this difficult time with the helpful Condoleezza Rice apparently chairing the proceedings.
Reading further, the report details a number of areas where this generous application of funds will be spend and at first glance the plans seem a little surprising. In fact they seem to suggest that the direction the spending will take will be one of a disruptive nature rather than what a normal person would call assistance. In fact disruption is the kind word for it, a more appropriate word being perhaps, destabilization, for the report goes on to list "anti-Castro radio and television broadcasts, academic exchanges, and support for the Cuban opposition and post-Castro transition plans."
Now I know that the world is full of articles, web-sites, blogs and whatever that can quite obviously be termed "anti-Bush" but then they don't broadcast the fact they they intend to "assist" anybody. They simply state the facts and leave people to make up their own minds. And they certainly don't spend 63 million euros on doing it. And one expects these comments from people, its their way of having a voice and getting things off their chest in this crazy world. But an "elected" government stating that its going to bother broadcasting "anti-government progandanda" about a poxy little island in the middle of no-where. Its a bit silly isn't it? Its not something a responsible government would do or bother about doing, but then I don't expect the Bush regime knows the meaning of the term "responsible".
I had after all assumed, now that another more suitable enemy had been found, that communism would be forgotten about and consigned to history. Seems not.
Further on the reports tells us that there will be "support for the opposition". Oh, so its not about Communism or democracy after all. Its just another attempt to impose a right-wing government on some poor unsuspecting peasants. This time using those infamous Cuban Exiles in Florida. Well, I suppose Cuba is a dictatorship and imprisons people it doesn't like so of course the right-wing opposition is bound to be an improvement.
The report goes on to state that "The US government will need to be prepared well in advance to help in the event assistance is requested by the Cuban transition government," the report says. It calls for the US to be prepared to bring in technical assistance within two weeks of Mr Castro's death, and suggests Cuban exiles could play a pivotal role in the transition. Strange to say, but the Cuban government actually in Cuba, rather than in Miami, have their own transition plans in place and rightly or wrongly its pretty obvious that these plans don't include asking for Big Brothers assistance, technical or otherwise.
If ever you heard threatening language this is it. For "technical assistance" read the US Sixth Fleet, and it all becomes clear. All sounds very worrying and pretty bad if you happen to live in Cuba. Never mind, only 500 ( and something ) people were killed in 1989 when Panama was invaded ( although that's only the official figures) and around 400 killed and wounded in 1983 in Grenada, so keep your head down and don't argue and you'll probably be OK.
Of course, the reaction from Cuba is anything but grateful for this "assistance" being offered by the US. Elpais helpfully gives the response of the leader of the house, Ricardo Alarcón, for anyone conversant in spanish. Surprisingly, he is rather upset that his neighbour is doing this sort of planning. He finds a comparison with "Mein Kampf " which of course was written by Hitler and detailed his forthcoming invasion plans.
As if 40 years of economic embargo was not enough the regime in the US now sees fit to interfere with another countries politics. Nothing new there then. And an added bonus to the US government ( and probably the mean reason for all the nonsense ) will be that they will be keeping sweet the Cuban exiles that control much of Florida and will at least ensure their vote come next election time.
If anyone needs a helpful reminder of Cuba and a background to its policies Ann Louise Bardach has written an excellent book on the subject. Bardach obviously knows a lot about Cuba having spent the last 10 years working for the New York Times covering the island and the book is a level-headed look at the country that, along with many accolades from notable publications, has earned her the 2003 PEN USA award for best non-fiction as well as being voted one of the Top Ten books of 2002 by the LA Times.
I've read in the guardian of the rather kind offer that the US is making with regard to their neighbours over the Florida Straits, the island of Cuba. No doubt thinking ahead, and mindful of the fact that the dictator of Cuba, Fidel Castro, enjoys his 80th birthday in August, and has recently been suffering fainting fits, his northern neighbour has thoughtfully decided to put aside some 63 million of Euros over the next two years so that the population of the island can come to terms with the possible loss of their leader and therefore plan "for change".
To assist in spending this rather lavish sum a "Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba" has been created to assist the cubans in this difficult time with the helpful Condoleezza Rice apparently chairing the proceedings.
Reading further, the report details a number of areas where this generous application of funds will be spend and at first glance the plans seem a little surprising. In fact they seem to suggest that the direction the spending will take will be one of a disruptive nature rather than what a normal person would call assistance. In fact disruption is the kind word for it, a more appropriate word being perhaps, destabilization, for the report goes on to list "anti-Castro radio and television broadcasts, academic exchanges, and support for the Cuban opposition and post-Castro transition plans."
Now I know that the world is full of articles, web-sites, blogs and whatever that can quite obviously be termed "anti-Bush" but then they don't broadcast the fact they they intend to "assist" anybody. They simply state the facts and leave people to make up their own minds. And they certainly don't spend 63 million euros on doing it. And one expects these comments from people, its their way of having a voice and getting things off their chest in this crazy world. But an "elected" government stating that its going to bother broadcasting "anti-government progandanda" about a poxy little island in the middle of no-where. Its a bit silly isn't it? Its not something a responsible government would do or bother about doing, but then I don't expect the Bush regime knows the meaning of the term "responsible".
I had after all assumed, now that another more suitable enemy had been found, that communism would be forgotten about and consigned to history. Seems not.
Further on the reports tells us that there will be "support for the opposition". Oh, so its not about Communism or democracy after all. Its just another attempt to impose a right-wing government on some poor unsuspecting peasants. This time using those infamous Cuban Exiles in Florida. Well, I suppose Cuba is a dictatorship and imprisons people it doesn't like so of course the right-wing opposition is bound to be an improvement.
The report goes on to state that "The US government will need to be prepared well in advance to help in the event assistance is requested by the Cuban transition government," the report says. It calls for the US to be prepared to bring in technical assistance within two weeks of Mr Castro's death, and suggests Cuban exiles could play a pivotal role in the transition. Strange to say, but the Cuban government actually in Cuba, rather than in Miami, have their own transition plans in place and rightly or wrongly its pretty obvious that these plans don't include asking for Big Brothers assistance, technical or otherwise.
If ever you heard threatening language this is it. For "technical assistance" read the US Sixth Fleet, and it all becomes clear. All sounds very worrying and pretty bad if you happen to live in Cuba. Never mind, only 500 ( and something ) people were killed in 1989 when Panama was invaded ( although that's only the official figures) and around 400 killed and wounded in 1983 in Grenada, so keep your head down and don't argue and you'll probably be OK.
Of course, the reaction from Cuba is anything but grateful for this "assistance" being offered by the US. Elpais helpfully gives the response of the leader of the house, Ricardo Alarcón, for anyone conversant in spanish. Surprisingly, he is rather upset that his neighbour is doing this sort of planning. He finds a comparison with "Mein Kampf " which of course was written by Hitler and detailed his forthcoming invasion plans.
As if 40 years of economic embargo was not enough the regime in the US now sees fit to interfere with another countries politics. Nothing new there then. And an added bonus to the US government ( and probably the mean reason for all the nonsense ) will be that they will be keeping sweet the Cuban exiles that control much of Florida and will at least ensure their vote come next election time.
If anyone needs a helpful reminder of Cuba and a background to its policies Ann Louise Bardach has written an excellent book on the subject. Bardach obviously knows a lot about Cuba having spent the last 10 years working for the New York Times covering the island and the book is a level-headed look at the country that, along with many accolades from notable publications, has earned her the 2003 PEN USA award for best non-fiction as well as being voted one of the Top Ten books of 2002 by the LA Times.
// posted by daniel @ 3:49 pm 
