So, Um, Why is Cuba Still Our Enemy?
Can someone remind me why the US is still enemies with Cuba?
I can't figure it out. Sure, when Fidel Castro was president and railing against the "imperialist" US, I could see why our two countries wouldn't be friends and all. But despite his speech this week before the Cuba National Assembly, Castro is no longer in power - his brother Raul is. Even the speech by the 84-year-old Castro was uncharacteristically short. It warned, like so many in the past, that nuclear war was imminent and that the "empire" (read: U.S.) would come to an end. Castro even mentioned the Soviets and the U.S.S.R. in the present tense.
Clearly, Castro is no longer a threat to the US, not that he really ever was. The closest he came to even being relevant to American foreign policy was when he agreed to store some of Nikita Kruschev's bombs on his island.
He has, however, served as a lightning rod for much of America's angst about communism. I can understand that.
In the years following the Bolshevik Revolution, America watched, and eventually fought, the spread of communism across Europe and Asia. Millions of lives were affected, and it is no small statement to say that American ideals of freedom and democracy were under attack by communist revolutionaries such as Castro.
I'm no bleeding-heart pinko Castro sympathizer. I love democracy and am grateful for my freedoms and rights. I understand the sacrifices that thousands have made to keep America safe while communism spread around the globe. However, how can we as a nation today say we don't like Cuba because it's communist when we are scrambling to offer other communist regimes, such as China, "most-favored nation" status? It's an honest question.
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