Barack Obama's Disturbing Cuba Policy
Brian Tubbs
March 03, 2008
Barack Obama's declaration that he would meet with new Cuban dictator Raul Castro "without precondition" should cause Americans to look at his candidacy with greater alarm. Given the superficiality of many Americans, it probably won't. But it should.
To say that you will unconditionally meet with the dictator of a hostile regime in an unstable country is frankly unacceptable for a twenty-first century presidential candidate.
The best that can be said for Barack Obama's stunning remark is that he is not ready for "Big League" diplomacy. At worst, Obama's willingness to meet with Raul Castro unconditionally implies that Obama sees nothing inherently objectionable in the Castro regime's communist policies and their 50-plus year record of human rights atrocities.
Given Obama's strong liberal rating in the US Senate, his stance on Cuba is worth close examination. Obama has already staked out a position to the left of even Hillary Clinton with respect to Cuba. He has advocated easing travel-related restrictions between the U.S. and Cuba, and has implied he would be open to even more changes along those lines.
Obama has argued that easing such restrictions would make the Cuban people less dependent on their government. The validity of such an approach is very much debatable. Yet, what's more disturbing is the possibility that there might be more to Obama's stance than meets the eye.
A recent Houston TV news story captured a volunteer Obama office in Houston with a Cuban national flag -- a flag with the image of Che Guevara superimposed on it. I'm not suggesting that Barack Obama is an avid supporter of Che Guevara, but I do find it interesting that Guevara supporters would gravitate so enthusiastically to the campaign of Barack Obama. And other Americans should find it interesting as well.
Che Guevara was a terrorist thug who brutalized political opponents and praised the transformation of men "into effective, violent, merciless, and cold killing machines."
To this day, liberals are fond of condemning the corrupt Batista era that preceded Castro and Guevara, as if to somehow excuse the excesses of Castro and his regime. Many of them go on to suggest that the main reason the United States has maintained an adversarial posture with Cuba is that it "won't play ball" with the U.S. as it did in the Batista era. Does Barack Obama feel this way?
United States policy toward Cuba isn't based on a simple disagreement or an unfortunate misunderstanding. Nor is US disapproval of Castro's Cuba based on American economic interests. America's anti-Castro policy on Cuba is based on the fact that Cuba is an island prison dominated by one of the most vicious and despicable regimes in modern history.
If Senator Obama doesn't see this, then Americans should be seriously alarmed at the prospect of President Obama in January 2009.
To say that you will unconditionally meet with the dictator of a hostile regime in an unstable country is frankly unacceptable for a twenty-first century presidential candidate.
The best that can be said for Barack Obama's stunning remark is that he is not ready for "Big League" diplomacy. At worst, Obama's willingness to meet with Raul Castro unconditionally implies that Obama sees nothing inherently objectionable in the Castro regime's communist policies and their 50-plus year record of human rights atrocities.
Given Obama's strong liberal rating in the US Senate, his stance on Cuba is worth close examination. Obama has already staked out a position to the left of even Hillary Clinton with respect to Cuba. He has advocated easing travel-related restrictions between the U.S. and Cuba, and has implied he would be open to even more changes along those lines.
Obama has argued that easing such restrictions would make the Cuban people less dependent on their government. The validity of such an approach is very much debatable. Yet, what's more disturbing is the possibility that there might be more to Obama's stance than meets the eye.
A recent Houston TV news story captured a volunteer Obama office in Houston with a Cuban national flag -- a flag with the image of Che Guevara superimposed on it. I'm not suggesting that Barack Obama is an avid supporter of Che Guevara, but I do find it interesting that Guevara supporters would gravitate so enthusiastically to the campaign of Barack Obama. And other Americans should find it interesting as well.
Che Guevara was a terrorist thug who brutalized political opponents and praised the transformation of men "into effective, violent, merciless, and cold killing machines."
To this day, liberals are fond of condemning the corrupt Batista era that preceded Castro and Guevara, as if to somehow excuse the excesses of Castro and his regime. Many of them go on to suggest that the main reason the United States has maintained an adversarial posture with Cuba is that it "won't play ball" with the U.S. as it did in the Batista era. Does Barack Obama feel this way?
United States policy toward Cuba isn't based on a simple disagreement or an unfortunate misunderstanding. Nor is US disapproval of Castro's Cuba based on American economic interests. America's anti-Castro policy on Cuba is based on the fact that Cuba is an island prison dominated by one of the most vicious and despicable regimes in modern history.
If Senator Obama doesn't see this, then Americans should be seriously alarmed at the prospect of President Obama in January 2009.
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