Humberto Fontova: Castro's New Republican Friends?
[Humberto Fontova is the author of four books including Exposing the Real Che Guevara. Visit hfontova.com.]
Castro's propaganda ministry is not notorious for fawning over Republicans. But lately they've been gushing over the Ranking Republican member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senator Richard Lugar.
"Changing Cuba Policy-Staff Trip Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate," is the title of the report Senator Lugar released on Tuesday February 24rd to delirious and unanimous acclaim from the mainstream media. This acclaim-- to the surprise of no Cuba-watchers--was quickly echoed in Havana.
Typically, as with anything spoken or written regarding Castro and Cuba that receives such Beltway media acclaim, the report is a compendium of idiotic cliches that historical knowledge, a few minutes of research, or even a command of the English language render asinine.
"After 47 years," starts this report, "the unilateral embargo on Cuba..." Let's stop right here. Webster's defines "embargo" as "a government order imposing a trade barrier." As a verb it's defined as "to prevent commerce."
Yet according to figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce (that one would surely hope the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations could easily access!) the U.S. transacted $710 million with Cuba in 2008, and has transacted more than $2 BILLION worth of business with Cuba in the last eight years. Currently the U.S. is Cuba's biggest food supplier and 4th biggest import partner. The U.S. has been Cuba's biggest donor of humanitarian aid including medicine and medical supplies for decades. The so-called embargo merely stipulates that the Castro regime pay cash up front for all U.S. agricultural products; no Ex-Im (taxpayer) financing of such sales. Much of the glee in Havana stems from Senator Lugar's report bemoaning this eminently wise policy enacted by the Bush team that has kept the U.S. taxpayer among the few in the world not screwed and tattooed by Castro.
OK, this cliché aside, let's proceed with the rest of Senator Lugar's report: "(the embargo) has failed to achieve its stated purpose of bringing democracy to the Cuban people."
Who said that was "it's stated purpose," Senator Lugar? You have a large staff, Senator. Have them look up the speech Secretary of State Dean Rusk gave to the Organization of American States at Punta del Este Uruguay on January, 21, 1962 recommending the members' vote for an embargo on Cuba. There is not a single word-or even an inference-that this was the embargo's stated goal. Indeed, Secretary Rusk, went out of his way to stress that this was NOT the embargo's goal. "The United States objects to Cuba's activities an policies in the international arena not its internal system or arrangements." Get your crackerjack staff to look it up, Senator Lugar....
Read entire article at American Thinker
Castro's propaganda ministry is not notorious for fawning over Republicans. But lately they've been gushing over the Ranking Republican member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senator Richard Lugar.
"Changing Cuba Policy-Staff Trip Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate," is the title of the report Senator Lugar released on Tuesday February 24rd to delirious and unanimous acclaim from the mainstream media. This acclaim-- to the surprise of no Cuba-watchers--was quickly echoed in Havana.
Typically, as with anything spoken or written regarding Castro and Cuba that receives such Beltway media acclaim, the report is a compendium of idiotic cliches that historical knowledge, a few minutes of research, or even a command of the English language render asinine.
"After 47 years," starts this report, "the unilateral embargo on Cuba..." Let's stop right here. Webster's defines "embargo" as "a government order imposing a trade barrier." As a verb it's defined as "to prevent commerce."
Yet according to figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce (that one would surely hope the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations could easily access!) the U.S. transacted $710 million with Cuba in 2008, and has transacted more than $2 BILLION worth of business with Cuba in the last eight years. Currently the U.S. is Cuba's biggest food supplier and 4th biggest import partner. The U.S. has been Cuba's biggest donor of humanitarian aid including medicine and medical supplies for decades. The so-called embargo merely stipulates that the Castro regime pay cash up front for all U.S. agricultural products; no Ex-Im (taxpayer) financing of such sales. Much of the glee in Havana stems from Senator Lugar's report bemoaning this eminently wise policy enacted by the Bush team that has kept the U.S. taxpayer among the few in the world not screwed and tattooed by Castro.
OK, this cliché aside, let's proceed with the rest of Senator Lugar's report: "(the embargo) has failed to achieve its stated purpose of bringing democracy to the Cuban people."
Who said that was "it's stated purpose," Senator Lugar? You have a large staff, Senator. Have them look up the speech Secretary of State Dean Rusk gave to the Organization of American States at Punta del Este Uruguay on January, 21, 1962 recommending the members' vote for an embargo on Cuba. There is not a single word-or even an inference-that this was the embargo's stated goal. Indeed, Secretary Rusk, went out of his way to stress that this was NOT the embargo's goal. "The United States objects to Cuba's activities an policies in the international arena not its internal system or arrangements." Get your crackerjack staff to look it up, Senator Lugar....