From: Fred B. Moseley (fmoseley@MTHOLYOKE.EDU)
Date: Wed May 21 2003 - 21:51:31 EDT
Hi Rakesh, I don't know how likely a US invasion is. I hope not very likely. And it is our responsibility to make sure that it doesn't happen. But I can certainly understand why the Cubans think that a US invasion is very likely, and are therefore preoccupied with preparations for defense against an invasion. You can see it in their faces - they are scared to death. We can afford to be wrong about an invasion, but the Cubans can't. If you were Cuban, with the decades of aggression by the US against Cuba, and now with the bellicose Bush administration who owe their stolen election to the Miami Cubans, and who are riding high after "victories" in Afghanastan and Iraq, wouldn't you assume the worst and prepare for the worst? Comradely, Fred On Tue, 20 May 2003, Rakesh Bhandari wrote: > Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 10:14:23 -0700 > From: Rakesh Bhandari <rakeshb@STANFORD.EDU> > Reply-To: OPE-L <OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU> > To: OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU > Subject: Re: (OPE-L) Re: dreams and nightmares > > >I wrote in an earlier post: > > > >Almost everyone I met in Cuba seems to genuinely admire Fidel - even a > >reactionary, racist taxi driver who drove us from the airport the first > >night. "Fidel loves Cuba," he said, "he has done a lot for Cuba." > > > > > >To which Riccardo replied: > > > >> may I say to Fred that > >> what the racist taxi driver told him could have been told to him by > >> almost all of Italians who were not in jail in Italy 1935?) > >> > > > >Riccardo, are you really comparing Castro to Mussolini? > > > >Did Mussolini eliminate illiteracy in Italy, and provide free quality > >education for all, including higher education for those who want it? > >Did Mussolini provide free quality health care for all? > >Did Mussolini equalize incomes and significantly improve the living > >standards and life's prospects of the lower classes? > >Did Mussolini give everyone their own apartment (no rent has to be paid)? > >Did Mussolini overthrow a hated dictator, who was a puppet of foreign > >imperialism? > > > >The Cuban people know this history well, and they know and deeply > >appreciate what Castro has led them to achieve. > > > Well yes. > > But this raises a problem for me. The resort to apparently > ununusually long and cruel punishment has been justified in part by > the imminent threat of a US invasion. But would even Bush attempt to > oust a leader with substantial support? > > Is an invasion of Cuba imminent? No matter how much brother Jeb may pine > for an invasion, big brother seems to have has hands tied in Iraq. > Castro has to remain popular enough and the Cuban people well armed > enough that the current US administration would not dare to invade > Cuba (unlike Saddam, Castro has not tortured and murdered tens and > tens of thousands of people without trial!). Yes there seems to be > growing problems with income inequality, if not outright dollar > apartheid; the tourist economy seems to lack all real development > potential (what is a dependent country to do in the world economy?); > but the gains in education, health care and agriculture (I would like > to know more of the work of Richard Levins and John Vandermeer here) > seem substantial enough that it's hard even to imagine substantial > Cuban support to oust Castro for a "Gomer Pyle" (akaGarner), Bremer > or Chalabi-like figure. > > I and many others did not think the US would have great trouble > ousting the fascist Saddam who truly seemed to have the narrowest > base of support; this administration no matter how deluded by its > own piled-on propaganda must know their forces would confront grave > difficulties in Cuba. Of course as Patrick Cockburn has reported the > Bush administration actually believed Kanan Makiya that the mass of > Iraqis would rally behind US occupation forces. Yet Rumsfeld, etc > has to fear--with good reason--a Bay of the Pigs redux. Especially > after the failure of the coup attempts in Venezuela. > > > I could be very wrong about this--maybe Jeb has already been given a > special office in the Pentagon to organize the invasion, and the > Cuban government is very weak as a result of the embargo and the > deterioration in the world economy over which it has no control. > > Yours, Rakesh >
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