Menendez ready to "duke it out" over Cuba policy

Sniff (4.00 / 1)

If only this were an April Fool's diary.

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by: Jeff Gardner @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 15:54:08 PM UTC

Menendez is Blowing It... (4.00 / 1)

Bob Menendez is obviously an extremely intelligent and adept politician, but when it comes to Cuba policy he is a captive of emotion and of cultural affiliations/obligations that conflict with the broad/best interests of both the American and Cuban people.

There remains a very powerful right wing oriented Cuban community that is still cosmically pissed off that Castro's "revolution" threw out the corrupt scumbag, Batista.

Had, America been about human rights and Democracy back then....we would not have been supporting/propping up a corrupt and dirty regime and we would have been working with freedom loving Cubans to help them to attain clean decent governance.....but no, we stuck with the scumbag.

So Castro took over and turned out to, in many different ways, be just as bad as Batista.   Tragically, many of the upper crust and middle class Cubans who came here are still living in the past and want to somehow return to the status quo ante......and that's just not happening.

By positively/constructively engaging Cuba at every level, we will then have more influence and more positive effect on the lives of the Cuban people who still live in Cuba.    Prosperity will lead to a more open and democratic society there.   Economic warfare just makes them more likely to buy into the Communist bullshit and resent/hate the USA!

Cuba policy has to be about what's best for the Cuban people and the American people; not what a relatively small (but extremely wealthy and active) subset of right wing Cuban-Americans desire.  

Hell, I wonder if some of the older right wing Cubans here wouldn't love to simply invade Cuba and take back all their old lands and simply just go back to "the good old days" if they could get away with it?  

Constructive engagement and a sincere/genuine commitment to human rights and democracy is the way to go vis a vis Cuba.   The cold war is over and nobody really won.    Let's give it up and move forward.

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by: Nick Lento @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 15:58:20 PM UTC

Quote (0.00 / 0)

Hell, I wonder if some of the older right wing Cubans here wouldn't love to simply invade Cuba and take back all their old lands and simply just go back to "the good old days" if they could get away with it?  

They tried it already.  Bay of Pigs anyone?

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by: SmartyJones @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 19:29:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Bay of Pigs Was.... (0.00 / 0)

...JFK's biggest blunder and almost led to a nuclear exchange with the USSR.   (I've spoken a veteran of that debacle and they were truly screwed over by our failure to provide them tactical air support etc.) I don't doubt that there are still extremist right wing Cubans who would (again, if they had the power) still invade Cuba to "liberate" it from the Commies.   I grew up in West New York (many thousands of Cuban refugees relocated there and in Union City) and saw the visceral hatred for Castro....it runs very deep.  That kind of hatred is understandable on an emotional level, given what Castro did to them and the country.....but it's not a sound basis for US foreign policy.

From the WaPo article....,

"Menendez and other proponents of the current restrictions warn that free-flowing trade and tourism would only enrich the Castro regime and defuse tensions within the Cuban population -- friction that is key, they argue, to fostering political change."

And there's the nub of where he's wrong.  It's precisely the "friction" caused by the embargo that has enabled Castro et al to remain entrenched in power this long.   Our policies have, ironically/perversely, served to give Castro a pretext to frighten and bully the Cuban people into submission to his own BS.   And don't get me started about the insane brutality of our policies vis a vis El Salvador and Nicaragua over the years......and the "anti-communist" bullshit is still the core of our Latin American policy.

It seems we still haven't learned the lesson that the way to bring the ordinary people of other nations to our side is to stand up for human rights, freedom and economic justice.  

Simply trading with Cuba is a start, but trade alone will take a long time to work....we need to revamp our whole approach to the rest of the world so that it's truly/genuinely clear that America is about ordinary people having freedom and justice in their lives.....that, combined with progressive trading policies, would result in real prodemocracy revolutions in Cuba and throughout the world.

So, I'll agree with Menendez to the extent that trade alone isn't sufficient....but clearly, 50 years of "friction" is utterly counterproductive.    

The best way to spread democracy, real...deep democracy throughout this hemisphere is to openly engage the struggle to perfect it in our own nation and set an example.  We still have quite a ways to go.  Obviously it's much easier to preach than to practice.

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by: Nick Lento @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 23:11:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Please don't lecture, (0.00 / 0)

Nick.

First of all, I agree that the US should lessen trade and travel restrictions with Cuba.  As you and others note, 50 years of embargo has done little or nothing to create so called "regime change."

Since Obama and Medvedev can talk about reducing nuclear weapons, maybe Obama and Raul can talk about easing the so called embargo.  The cold war is over.

You grew up in Hudson County so you know very well that the first, even the second wave, of refugees who fled there were doctors, lawyers and businessmen.  They took jobs cleaning toilet bowls and working in clothing factories.

They didn't want to come here - they were forced to.  And they thought they were going back.

Obviously, over the years, many became prosperous.  In Union City it is not unusual to see signs that say, "English Spoken Here."

You are correct that most of that group has a visceral hate for Fidel, which will probably never change.  But to call them right wing nutcakes just cheapens the discussion.

They are dying off.  Many of their offspring, who may never have been to Cuba, appear to have far more progressive views.  Menendez, at least politically, does not share them.

I'm not sure "duking it out' is the answer.  But a dialogue on the best ways to foster human rights in Cuba seems like a good thing.

Menendez would have to defend a position that continued isolation of the island is the best way to create the change he desires.  As you note, that clearly hasn't worked.  So, I'm curious about what his argument will be.

Putting a hold on the scientists and a rumored hold on the budget was pretty tacky.  But to cram the provisions he objects to into pending legislation without discussion was pretty hamhanded, too.

Don't you think AIPAC would come swooping down if we cut some aid to Israel without telling anyone?  That country does some bad things, too.

So duke it out.  I think Menendez will lose the argument, but at least it will be discussed.

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by: SmartyJones @ Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 10:56:32 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

It Sounds Like You Agree.... (0.00 / 0)

...with just about all the points I made in my "lecture".  lol

You are right in that second and third generation Cubans hold far more nuanced views than the people who were forced to come here.   (It could get very complicated if we got into a discussion of how the poor lived in Cuba in the 50's and how the class divisions there were extremely brutal/oppressive...and how the American Mafia was a major player in running the island.   Also the Cuban refugees got extremely high levels of support from the federal government...unlike Salvadorean refugees from the right wing death squads etc etc etc etc)

And I agree with you that a full throated set of congressional hearings that airs out all these facts/arguments/histories can be a constructive event.  It all really depends of who is called to testify and how the chair runs the hearings.

The key point, as I see it, is that we've inadvertently strengthened Castro by using the blunt instrument of the embargo......the same way we strengthened Saddam Hussein with that embargo.   And in both cases, human rights and democracy were not our real agenda (despite the lip service).

There are broad thematic elements here that apply at a global/systemic level.....but I'll spare you that analysis here/now.  

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by: Nick Lento @ Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 15:58:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Principled ... (0.00 / 0)

"Anyone who knows me knows my views are both heartfelt and principled," Menendez responded.

Yes, I am sure his views are both. But I think you can be wrong and be both. That's where I believe he is.

Holding up Obama's science nominees was a clunky move, like holding them - and progress on global warming - hostage for an issue unrelated to what they were in Washington to work on.

But the whole approach seems wrong to me, to deliberately work to keep a country poor and isolated because our team didn't win.  

It's not a particularly snappy signature, but here's what I think we need in the next NJ Democratic State Chair.  

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by: Rosi Efthim @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 16:30:27 PM UTC

Too angry to think straight. (0.00 / 0)

I understand the anger, but it comes across as having more loyalty to the memory scumbag Jorge Mas Canosa than to actual, living Cubans.

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by: Dvd Avins @ Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 14:54:30 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Failed Policies (0.00 / 0)

The embargo is pretty clearly a failure, as it has been in place for nearly 50 years without causing any change in Cuba's government or policies. Menendez does have a point about "who wants to sell their stuff no matter how many people are in prison," but the U.S. has had normal relations with governments that just as bad or worse. I don't see much reason to support a policy that is just a Cold War relic.

As for the travel restrictions, I suspect they hurt Americans more than Cuba's government.

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by: dendroica @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 19:21:38 PM UTC

Please note (0.00 / 0)

that I linked to the WaPo article yesterday.

http://www.bluejersey.com/show...

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by: SmartyJones @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 19:34:41 PM UTC

Embargo (0.00 / 0)

From Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U...

Yeah, I know, its Wiki....

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by: SmartyJones @ Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 15:31:25 PM UTC