Cuba
What's
up with Cuba? Why won't we recognize the government that's been running that
island since before most of us were born? Exactly what is our problem with
them? Is it their universal health care? Is it their near universal literacy?
Is it their low infant mortality rate or high life expectancy? Is it their
presumably paranoid concern we might invade them a fourth time? Are they really
that much more communist than China and Vietnam? Is it the beard? What?And why do we have to maintain a military base in Guantanamo when the Cubans don't want us there? It's just plain rude. Do we really need to refuel our ships that bad? Could they not go to Santa Domingo, or Miami for that matter? And was Guantanamo the most discreet place we could find to build a gulag, particularly one that we were foredoomed to end up operating under the glaring spotlight of global condemnation? Was that a good idea? Who's in charge of this stuff?
I
remember years ago looking into flying over Cuba on my way to Grand Cayman,
and I was told by the State Department that they couldn't tell me anything
about Cuba since it didn't officially exist, or words to that effect, and
that if I wanted to find out anything about that supposed country I should
contact the Czechoslovakian embassy. I swear I'm not making that up,
and it occurs to me for the first time since that Czechoslovakia no longer
exists. Cuba, of course, still does.In the event, I ended up trying to fly around Cuba, but taking off from Haiti on my way to Kingston I had to turn back because I couldn't get a weather report from the Haitian tower. Maybe I should write a position popup about our adventures in that particular country. The government of which we of course recognize, whenever they have one.
addendum:
(10/31/07) Ron Paul sums it up.
