The U. S. Cuban Policy Ridicules Democracy

And It's a Policy Dating Back to the 1950s!

       On a daily basis, it seems that leading newspapers around the world and in the U. S. -- such as The Kansas City Star -- feature major articles ridiculing America's Cuban policy that, amazingly, has been allowed to exist for six decades now with no correction by the supposed guardians of the American democracy -- the majority of Americans who, to the rest of the world, appear either too ignorant, too cowardly, or too unpatriotic to end the interminable farce. The latest notable journalist-author-historian to call it "a farce" is Louis A. Perez Jr., Ph.D, writing in yesterday's Kansas City Star. 

Louis A. Perez Jr.

 
       Louis A. Perez Jr. is a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina. His books include "The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba," "Cuba in the American Imagination" and an updated version of  "Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution" published by Oxford Press University as a riveting political chronology of U. S. - Cuban relations. He also edits the informative Havana Journal blog and is a top expert on U.S.-Cuban relations.
         Mr. Perez this week {April 24th} authored a major article in the Kansas City Star entitled "What the Beyonce and Jay-Z Cuba Uproar Teaches Us." He wrote: "The furor over the recent visit of Beyonce and Jay-Z to Cuba calls attention to the archaic U.S. embargo and the odious restriction on our right to travel. Beyonce and Jay-Z oblige us to confront again a policy that has lapsed into a farce." Mr. Perez's Kansas City Star article this week explains in detail why the U. S. Cuban policy is indeed "odious" and "a farce." He is fiercely anti-Castro but, unlike the extremists Cuban-exile benefactors, he is also fair and balanced in his appraisals of Cuba and how the island relates, historically and topically, to the U. S.

Louis A. Perez Jr. this week points out that, yes, the U. S. - Cuban policy is "odious" and "a farce" and that, yes, the U. S. embargo of Cuba, put into  effect "52 years ago" remains "in place" but "the Cuban government remains in power." That's all true, making the U. S. look like a big bully that frets and whines about being kicked off the island in 1959 for supporting the brutality and thievery of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Instead of owning up to that odious farce it has been compounded, as Louis A. Perez Jr. alluded to, by two generations of Americans who lack the courage, intelligence or patriotism to do something about it. Indeed, if the United States, when it comes to Cuba, is to be viewed as a big bully, it at least should exhibit some strength and reasoning to support its Cuban policy. Instead, it just whines, weeps, and bows to the dictates of a few Cuban-exile extremists unmindful that the United Nations and the world mocks its democracy with images like the one above-left, a portrayal that should embarrass Americans.

Penelope Purdy

      Penelope Purdy, of course, authored the all-time best and sanest quotation to define the U.S.-Cuban quagmire: "The U.S.-Cuban policy has been conducted all these decades with the IQ of a salamander."
   Surely no sane and fair-minded Cuban or American can dispute that quotation.

     And surely, six decades of insanity regarding one issue and one nearby island is six decades too long.

Celia Sanchez

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      Celia Sanchez, of course, penned the all-time best and most omniscient quotation that defined the Cuban Revolution: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel Lives." She died in 1980 as Cuba's greatest heroine; Fidel is a few weeks shy of his 87th birthday. Against all odds, the Batistianos have not regained control of Cuba from 1959 till today. Thus, Celia's proclamation as well as Revolutionary Cuba have both endured since 1959.
  What transpires after Fidel's death is anyone's guess and, as far as I know, Celia did not offer a prediction regarding that. So, we'll just have to wait and see.

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