Freedom For Me, But Not For Thee

This should be all I need to see about today's op-ed in the Strib about Cuba; the author blurb at the bottom:

Patrick Leet was an educator and analyst in Cuba with Witness for Peace from 2001 to 2005. He now lives in Minneapolis and works with Witness for Peace Upper Midwest.

Whenever left-wing groups co-opt New Testament imagery, the message is clear; deeply-pretentious people painstakingly twisting Christian theology into a tool for the totalitarian thugs for whom they find such ready forgiveness (as opposed to conservatives in office in America).

Patrick Leet continues:

On July 11, the Star Tribune ran an article about U.S. plans for a post-Castro Cuba. Imagine how we in the United States would feel if our positions were reversed. The following paragraphs have been taken word for word from the July 11 article, just changing "Washington" to "Havana,"Castro" to "Bush," and so on.

I'll interrupt to point out that, if you're short on time and hoping Mr. Leet gets any more clever than this college-paper prank, it doesn't get any better. Move along if you need to:

"HAVANA - The Cuban National Assembly plans to spend $80 million over the next two years to encourage the United States to turn to democracy after George W. Bush is no longer in power.

I'm not sure what's funnier - that Leet got published, or that the Strib is under the impression that such press releases are fictional enough to draw comment anymore. I mean, it sounds like a typical day at Kos or on the Mike Malloy show.

But I digress:

" 'We are actively working for change in the United States, not simply waiting for change,' Fidel Castro said...
"It also calls for spending $24 million on Cuban-produced, English-language television, radio and Internet programming beamed into the USA; $10 million for education and cultural exchange programs, and $15 million to help people in the USA plan and organize for a transition to democracy."

As offensive as this scenario sounds, it is exactly what U.S. policymakers are planning for Cuba, completely ignoring what the Cuban people want for their own country.

Does Mr. Leet assume that the reader doesn't know that while this program is a proposal, Fidel Castro in fact does deny democracy to his subjects? Does he know it himself (as minions of groups named "Witness for Peace" frequently seem not to)? Does any editor at the Strib know enough to ask a writer like Leet to think about such things?

(Note to Marty Andrade: This is why I never write letters to the editor. What's the point?)

The article also mentions that even the minority of Cubans referred to as "dissidents" [They're a "minority" because if they come too far out of the closet they end up in the gulag...er, la gulaga] usually oppose U.S. funding and support, as the links to the United States make their work in Cuba illegal and taint them as carrying out a U.S. agenda. When even the Cubans that U.S. officials try to court as allies reject the "help" of the United States, it is time for a change of course.

Or perhaps time for the likes of Leet to realize that dissidents in Stalinist countries have to be very careful about what they publicly ask for.

After close to 50 years of failure, U.S. policies continue to meet with condemnation around the world. On Nov. 7, the United Nations voted 182-4 to condemn the U.S. embargo of Cuba. Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands joined the United States in support of the embargo, while Micronesia abstained.

The fact that France, Russia and Sudan oppose the US doesn't keep me up at night.

Even the U.S. Congress has shifted dramatically in recent years, as conservative Republicans from farm states push to open up trade with Cuba and remove travel restrictions.

Which matters not a jot; trading with Cuba may help accelerate the fall of Castro; it may not. But either way, Castro will one day pass from the scene; it's best to have a plan, preferably one that leaves Cuba free, finally:

Just as the future of Cuba is up to Cubans to decide, so too is the future of U.S. policy left up to the people of the United States to determine.

Um, right, Mr. Leet.

We elected a president and a Congress.

All we want is for Cubans to have the same right.

Remember them, Patrick Leet? Or didn't you witness any of that?

Posted by Mitch at July 20, 2006 08:00 AM | TrackBack