The Current Discussion: With Castro gone, will Cuba become America's 51st state?
America's obsession with Cuba is an interesting study of how the U.S. responds to those who stand up to it. Throughout the Bay of Pigs incident, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the even since the fall of Soviet Union, Fidel Castro's dogged determination not to let Cuba change has been a constant irritation to Washington. Fidel Castro belonged to an era of revolutionaries, and there’s no doubt he and Che fought a dictatorial government. One wonders the course of Cuba-U.S. relations would have been different if, during Castro’s visit to Washington in April 1959, President Eisenhower had met him instead of going off to play golf. Perhaps things wouldn’t have changed much, as Castro's nationalization of private property had put him on a collision course with free enterprise. His repression of former Batista supporters meant there was not much to cheer about for the Castro camp.
Irrespective of the history, it’s wishful thinking that a post-Fidel Cuba could be swallowed up formally by the U.S. While many Cuban-Americans may hope for that, and hope the two countries will normalize relations, we must admit that Cubans are a proud and independent people. Sanctions have done nothing to get rid of the man that the U.S. so hates, and invasion seems a difficult possibility, unless of course someone can come up with a Weapons of Mass Destruction theory against Mr. Castro. Cuba has suffered both at the hands of its own leadership and also at the hands of U.S. policies. But to look to the decades ahead with a sense of jingoism on the part of the U.S. would be naive and serve as recognition that an old man, gone in the teeth, could have stood up (alone) against the U.S. and prevented an invasion.
I am no champion of totalitarian governments, Castro included, and in the same vein I am no champion of the U.S. policy of incarceration of suspects without trial. Both acts are deplorable and yet the double speak for foreign policy is so apparent. I do not see the U.S. fleet off the coast of Burma telling them to change to democracy and stop killing monks; why then should we anticipate Cuba as another state of the U.S.? How? Invasion? Choice?
We live in a world where the respect of nations has to be mutual and enshrined on our principles of foreign policy. That also means that Cuba sans Castro, and people of other countries, should respect the U.S. way of life and stop targeting America. The big question is who will turn the leaf first towards a better future for the next generation? Who will stop invasions, bullying and forcing other nations to submit to their will? When will dictatorial regimes, like those in Cuba, China, and Burma to name a few, bring about a change so that people have more say?
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