American bully history, is written large in Cuba!
Michael Dingake | Tuesday October 31, 2017 15:43
From primary school, I was fascinated by the American history: The Boston Tea Party; the American War of independence; the catchy slogan of, “Taxation without representation is tyranny!” The biggest blot in American history was the slave trade; the capture and/or buying and selling of Africans as slaves!
Slavery was abolished by Abram Lincoln after a bitter civil war. Abe Lincoln ranks highest amongst American presidents! He impressed me by vowing to abolish slavery before he became president and kept his word. He is the man who defined democracy as, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people!”
American foreign policy has meandered from isolationism, to cold war, to superpower arrogance and coups planned by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and executed to create the whole world in the image of the US, a country believed by its leaders to be an exclusive model of prosperity, military strength and political wisdom.
Donald Trump speaks of making America great; he has dedicated all his policies to the interest of US and its citizens. Trump isn’t the first to claim US vision of splendor, prosperity and excellence. One John Smith said to be ‘founder’ of the colony of Virginia, 1607, enthusing about his discovery had this to say: “Heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation!” Though Thomas Jefferson one of the most revered of the American presidents had said in 1790: “Every man and every body of men on earth, possess the right of self-government,” subsequent American presidents haven’t respected sovereignty of other nations.
We note in the statement of principles of 1997, eight years after the fall of the Berlin wall, the end of the cold war and the advent of one world superpower, the US, a statement formulated by some of the establishment hierarchy, amongst them, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Jeb Bush, it began: “American foreign policy is adrift. Conservatives have criticised the incoherent policies of the Clinton Administration. They have also resisted isolationist impulses from within their own ranks. But conservatives have not confidently advanced a strategic vision of the world. They have not set forth guiding principles for American foreign policies.” The consequences of the vision would be the following: “We need to increase defence spending significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibility today and modernise our armed forces for the future; we need to strengthen our ties to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values; we need to promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad; we need to accept responsibility for America’s unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity and our principles.” Not long thereafter, Iraq was invaded and crushed; Libya followed; Syria is in line! Iran is candidate for heavier sanctions! The objectives mentioned above, by the way, have always existed in practice.
Vietnam was subjected to the most vicious invasion; bombed with assorted bombs including napalm bombs meant to incinerate the population and scorch the very Vietnamese ground. Latin American countries have long been victims of the CIA. Atrocities were prescribed for countries seen as intransigent and hostile to the American line!
Cuba under Batista was the playground for America’s rich; its loss to Castro was a serious challenge, which awakened the wrath of the behemoth. Laws to inflict punishment to the Cubans were enacted. These laws were equipped with extraterritorial dimensions, making Cuba a pariah to world trade relations! Cuba was militarily invaded - the Bay of Pigs invasion. JF Kennedy’s amateur invaders got a shellacking never to return. Several attempts to assassinate Castro failed, acts of sabotage directed at Cuban infrastructure came to naught. To tarnish Cuba’s image, US alleged that Cuba was a terrorist state promoting terrorism. The lie didn’t stick, America had to remove Cuba from the list! Cuba however played an active role in giving material aid including personnel to fight revolutionary wars in Latin America and Africa. Cuban troops fighting side-by-side with MPLA, SWAPO and MK guerrillas gave Savimbi the tribalist, and apartheid Defence Force, both American surrogates, a good hiding! The Cuban intervention brought peace to Angola and early independence and democracy to Namibia and RSA!
Socialist Cuba has also beaten America at the diplomatic game. Every year at the UN, Cuba tables a resolution calling on America to lift the embargo. Support for the resolution has been growing until today all UN members support the call. America and her satellite, Israel, embarrassed by overwhelming support for Cuba, decided to abstain! Why not lift the blockade and stop behaving stupidly?
Barack Obama in his last two years in office made a gesture towards lifting the embargo and went on to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, without denting the trade embargo. As things stand, the new president, Donald Trump, is doing his best to dismantle all Obama efforts!
Bully America is alive and well! In the process of the bullying, she has inflicted grievous bodily harm on Cuba. Without the blockade, Cuba would be a paradise on earth, because in spite of the embargo, Cuba statistics are highly impressive, particularly on health: 28% of the national budget is dedicated to health; life expectancy is 78.5 years; 80 medical doctors per 10,000 citizens; 150 hospitals; 13 Universities of Medical Sciences; literacy at 100% in a population of 11.2 million!