Bush has plans for post Castro Cuba

[kevin1]

After Fidel

President Bush to Pursue International Aid for Post-Castro Cuba

WASHINGTON "” President Bush, seizing on Fidel Castro's fading health as a chance for rare change, will ask other nations Wednesday to help Cuba become a free society one day by committing money and political capital to the cause.

In a speech at the State Department "” his first standalone address on Cuba in four years "” Bush will look to the day when Castro is gone. Bush will describe a nation in which Cuban people choose a representative government and enjoy basic freedoms, with support from a broad international coalition.

For now, though, Castro is still the island's unchallenged leader, as he has been for almost 50 years. And he remains a nemesis to Bush, whom he accuses of being obsessed with Cuba and of threatening humanity with nuclear war.



Why is what happens in a podunk little country like Cuba any of Bush' business? What makes him think that anything will change to his liking there once Castro dies? Is there anything in it for us anyway? Who really gives a rat's ass?

[ipscshooter]

ORIGINAL: kevin1

Why is what happens in a podunk little country like Cuba any of Bush' business? What makes him think that anything will change to his liking there once Castro dies? Is there anything in it for us anyway? Who really gives a rat's ass?

I suppose that with the advent of intercontinental ballistic missiles, the potential use of Cuba as a launch pad for the Russians has faded. It's a potential market for selling U.S. goods. It's a potential investment hotzone for real estate developers and the tourism industry. There are tons of politically influential Cuban ex-pats, who are well organizaed and who have very deep pockets. Or, maybe Bush is trying to help his buddy Clinton find a new source of fine cigars.

[hillbillyhunter1]

Perhaps this is a chance for Bush tobroaden his scope of pretenseas agreat liberator and proponent of democrasy worldwide, instead of a condescending baffoon.

[Fieldmouse]

Can we say a fortune in old chevies?

[falcon]

The real estate panjandrums are chomping at the bit to sell off Cuba.

[kevin1]

Lest we forget, even once Fidel is gone his brother, who probably hates us just as much, will be the heir apparent. I don't see much changing in Cuba then, and certainly not in our favor. Unlike Puerto Rico, Cuba isn't chomping at the bit to be our buddy, and we have virtually no influence over them anyway. Besides, who the hell is Bush to think that he or any other POTUS can dictate their future based on our model? If they want to stay communist there's nothing we can say or do about it. It sounds pretty damned arrogant of him to be planning Cuba's future without so much as consulting them.

[Aught Six]

Cuba is a potential market. Also, considering that manyCuban people view the U.S. government more highly than their own, we could stand to gainan regional ally at the expense of Chavez and other leftist South American nuts.

[Canuck_Buck]

actually the Cuban people cherish Fidel only because of the US Embargo, they do not care about politics. Life is hard there, not because of Fidel. They now have generations of people raised under the embargo that automatically hate americans and their politics, view them as the evil ones. Chavez is just a billboard to stand under.

It would be interesting to see just what is on the embargo list. Medicines I do know are on that list.
The cuban people are mostly poor, do not have basic medicines like we do in the local pharmacies, do not have most of the things we take for granted. What they do manage to get is usually smuggled in some way. Friend of mine goes to Cuba regularly, brings a suitcase full of sample medical supplies she gets from clinics and health centers. and has become quite the celebrity as a result, been doing it for years. The cuban customs folks just ask where it is going, make a double check and send her on her way with a smile.

Maybe the emabrgo needs to be revised somewhat, watch how the Cuban people warm up to the US then. Bush is being a weener on this one I think.

[kevin1]

ORIGINAL: Canuck_Buck

Maybe the emabrgo needs to be revised somewhat, watch how the Cuban people warm up to the US then. Bush is being a weener on this one I think.

It just needs to be lifted entirely, Castro has made it a joke since day one and it does absolutely nothing for us. Every POTUS who has continued it was being a weener.

[burniegoeasily]

We should just let Castro's buddy, Carter, run cuba. Nothing would change that way.