Bush going after Castro next!

[ronnykmarshall]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031010/ts_nm/bush_cuba_sanctions_dc_2

Yeah, let's go get Fidel now!

[bif]

1. Humble foreign policy

Didn't he say something like that during the dabates? And absolutely no nation building. Lying asshole.

[homelandpunk]

39. Bush realized he can say hundreds of terrorists are in Cuba

and leave out the Gitmo part.

[Padraig18]

2. Oh, GREAT!

make the Cuban people suffer some MORE! They'll be SURE to love all things American after we do that. Uh huh, yup, yup... :eyes:

[davidinalameda]

3. I thought you meant the gay district in San Francisco

what the hell does he want with the Castro?

all the muscle boy clones would kick his ass

[ronnykmarshall]

7. I'd like to see that...

....his chicken shit ass running down Market St in terror!

[jumptheshadow]

13. LOL, here at my desk at work

And the Castro boys look a lot better in flight suits than he does, too.

[laylah]

22. He doesn't want

anything with Castro.....he wants Floriduh's Cuban exile vote. What a war-mongering, unethical, dishonorable A$$hole! :mad:

jenn

[qwertyMike]

4. Spring Break - Cuba

My Daughter (18) and her friends are going to Cuba on vacation in Feb./March next year. Pre-graduation winter break.
Canadians.
Told her to bring me back some Havanas

UP YOURS GEORGE BUSH. UP YOUR ASS.
HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[qwertyMike]

10. Castro - Canada

Pierre, Margaret and Fidel, godfather to baby Justin



Castro was a pallbearer at Trudeau's funeral.

So was Jimmy.

Maybe we can open Cuba up to Enron execs after Bush changes the regime?
Or give it back to the MOB

[noonwitch]

14. I thought you could buy cuban cigars in Canada?

I know guys who buy them in Windsor all the time and smuggle them back with them. Well, at least they did pre-911.

[OldSoldier]

24. You can only not buy Cubans in the United States

For the rest of the world, Cuba is where fine cigars come from.

[maveric]

25. You can buy them in Tijuana. At $30.00 a pop!

But TJ is a border town that survives on the american $$$$$. Perhaps you can get them cheaper in the interior on Mexico?

[Homer12]

5. The repukes really have missed Communism

[madrchsod]

6. who gives a

shit what bush says? really, nobody believes him. bush is back to his school yard bully shit. he`s a rich-kid frat boy punk but this time maybe someone will call his bluff.....

[JohnyCanuck]

8. Time to dust off the Operation Northwoods plans again. n/t

n/t

[LittleApple81]

9. Here is the text. I watched in on the CSPan video...but I don't think

anybody should be forced to watch that.

Notice (bolded by me) his obsession with "sex trade" and "free elections"... not in Florida but in Cuba.

THE PRESIDENT: Hola. Sientese. Thank you for coming. Welcome to the Rose Garden. It's my honor to host you for an important policy announcement.

snip....

Last year in Miami, I offered Cuba's government a way forward -- a way forward toward democracy and hope and better relations with the United States. I pledged to work with our Congress to ease bans on trade and travel between our two countries if -- and only if -- the Cuban government held free and fair elections, allowed the Cuban people to organize, assemble and to speak freely, and ease the stranglehold on private enterprise.

Since I made that offer, we have seen how the Castro regime answers diplomatic initiatives. The dictator has responded with defiance and contempt and a new round of brutal oppression that outraged the world's conscience.

In April, 75 peaceful members of Cuban opposition were given harsh prison sentences, some as long a 20 years. Their crimes were to publish newspapers, to organize petition drives, to meet to discuss the future of their country. Cuba's political prisoners subjected to beatings and solitary confinement and the denial of medical treatment. Elections in Cuba are still a sham. Opposition groups still organize and meet at their own peril. Private economic activity is still strangled. Non-government trade unions are still oppressed and suppressed. Property rights are still ignored. And most goods and services produced in Cuba are still reserved for the political elites.

snip...

First, we are strengthening re-enforcement of those travel restrictions to Cuba that are already in place. (Applause.) U.S. law forbids Americans to travel to Cuba for pleasure. That law is on the books and it must be enforced. We allow travel for limited reasons, including visit to a family, to bring humanitarian aid, or to conduct research. Those exceptions are too often used as cover for illegal business travel and tourism, or to skirt the restrictions on carrying cash into Cuba. We're cracking down on this deception.

I've instructed the Department of Homeland Security to increase inspections of travelers and shipments to and from Cuba. We will enforce the law. (Applause.) We will also target those who travel to Cuba illegally through third countries, and those who sail to Cuba on private vessels in violation of the embargo.

snip...

By cracking down on the illegal travel, we will also serve another important goal. A rapidly growing part of Cuba's tourism industry is the illicit sex trade, a modern form of slavery which is encouraged by the Cuban government . This cruel exploitation of innocent women and children must be exposed and must be ended. (Applause.)

snip...


In addition to the measures I've announced today, we continue to break the information embargo that the Cuban government has imposed on its people for a half a century. Repressive governments fear the truth, and so we're increasing the amount and expanding the distribution of printed material to Cuba, of Internet-based information inside of Cuba, and of AM-FM and shortwave radios for Cubans.

Radio and TV Marti are bringing the message of freedom to the Cuban people. This administration fully recognizes the need to enhance the effectiveness of Radio and TV Marti. Earlier this year, we launched a new satellite service to expand our reach to Cuba. On May 20th, we staged the historic flight of Commando Solo, an airborne transmission system that broke through Castro's jamming efforts. Tyrants hate the truth; they jam messages. And on that day, I had the honor of speaking to the Cuban people in the native language.

snip...

De nuevo, Cuba libre. Thank you all. (Applause.)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031010-2.html

[SammyWinstonJack]

34. Was he looking in the mirror when he said this?

"The dictator has responded with defiance and comptempt and a new round of brutal oppression that outraged the World's conscience."


Bush* doesn't give a rat's ass about free and fair elections or free speech or democracy in this Country, which we had before he stole his way into the WH. I thought Bush* liked dictatorships? Oh that's right, So long as he is the DICTATOR! Bush* should clean up his own backyard before in steps in someone's else.

[Eloriel]

36. He has the nerve to say elections in CUBA are a sham?

That's all I can handle from this.

Eloriel

[Fatima]

37. "Tyrants hate the truth"

gotta love that one.

can we like, use that on Chimpy, and make him melt like the wicked witch of the West?

[Renew Deal]

11. Bush is a fucking lunatic.

We can't be doing shit like this. He has the completly wrong approach to Cuba. Is this part of the PNAC agenda? :argh:

[Bozita]

12. Cuba had better get in line. Others are already waiting their turn.

Let's see.

Syria, Iran, North Korea.

[parkia00]

17. Anyone asked the military?

Wonder what would happen if Bush Co. demands that the military conduct operations simultaneously on multiple fronts in Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Syria and NK without any concern about costs or even whether it's possible with the present military resources at hand?

Will the military obey their commander or will they say "Hey, wait a minute here..."

[WhosNext]

15. This sows up Florida for Bush

The Cuban-Americans will come out in groves for him.

[reachout]

18. Not necessarily

I know it goes contrary to popular perception, but not every Cuban in America is so rabidly anti-Castro that they fail to see the damage the embargo has done to everyday people in their native country.

Yes, he is firming up his base among those who hate Castro with a passion, but they are not representative of all Cubans.

[zeemike]

16. The consequences of this could be devastating

We forget that we made a deal with Russia that we would not invade Cuba. Would the Russians stand for another disrespecting of agreements? Would the world?

[Langis]

19. Why must Cuba change?

Is it america's job to make every country democratic? I don't get it.

[FDRrocks]

26. In a place like Cuba...

or most other third world countries... America seems to be more disposed to your Rios Mont's and Batista's.

[JohnyCanuck]

35. The neo-cons think it is.

That's exactly the problem, Langis. The neo-cons surrounding Bush and who are resonsible for working behind the scenes to put him in power as their figurehead/puppet leader see the role of the USA as to unilaterally assert world leadership and use the US military to spread western style democracy and "freedom" all over the world, the theory being that when the happy day arrives that every country in the world is run as a western style democracy we will all live in harmony and everyone will willingly submit to the benign and altruistic guidance of the world's only superpower, the US Of A.


See for example this discussion about the neo-con think tank Project for a new American Century and their publication Rebuilding America's Defenses. Most of Bush's close advisors are members of PNAC.

The PNAC philosophy was formed in response to the ending of Cold War hostilities with Russia and the emergence of America as the world's only preeminent superpower. Claiming that this is a "strategic moment" that should not be squandered, members of PNAC say that America should use its position to advance its power and interests into all areas of the globe. They believe the time is ripe for establishing democracies in regimes considered hostile to U.S. interests and are not hesitant to advise the use of military means to achieve those ends.

PNAC members on the Bush team include Vice-President Dick Cheney and his top national security assistant, I. Lewis Libby; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz; National Security Council member Eliot Abrams; Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton; and former Chairman of the Defense Policy Board, Richard Perle. Other PNAC members exerting influence on U.S. policy are the President of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq Randy Scheunemann, Republican Party leader Bruce Jackson and current PNAC chairman William Kristol, conservative writer for the Weekly Standard. Jeb Bush, the president's brother and governor of Florida, is also a member.

Their campaign to overthrow Hussein was unsuccessful during the Clinton presidency and early days of Bush's term, but on 9/11 they found the event they needed to push for the overthrow of Hussein. Within 24 hours both Wolfowitz and Cheney were calling for an invasion of Iraq, even before anyone knew who had been responsible for the attacks

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3249.htm

For more information on PNAC see www.pnacrevealed.com

[RebelOne]

20. I can't understand why his sudden concern with Cuba.

There's no oil on that island!

[Ress1]

21. Haven't you heard? Castro has WMD and ties to

Osama Bin Laden and he's an imminent threat to our freedoms.

[birdman]

23. This is just to mend fences with the exiles

They were pissed when he sent some refugees back
earlier this year. It's all talk; there's not going to be
any military action.

[Ishoutandscream]

27. I was having a debate with a wing-nut

who was trying to justify our invasion of Iraq. I brought up the obvious - no wmd's, no nukes, no involvement in 9/11, and so on. Of course, he replied that we now had replaced a brutal dictator. I responded by saying, "Hey, we have a dictator 90 miles south of Florida. Why don't we invade Cuba?" Well, hot damn, the Boy King must have been listening. I will never put anything past this administration ever again.

[Silverhair]

28. I seriously doubt he will invade Cuba

Casto is pretty old. He has been around since the Eisenhower administration. Ten U S presidents. He can reasonable be expected to croak before too long. Those plans are probably for after Casto dies. We probably have some covert contacts inside Cuba for a post-Castro government. That our administration is talking about it is probably to shore up support in Florida among the "exile" community.

However, my statements above are educated guesses, and could be wrong.

[pandatimothy]

29. I doubt it too but

you know he has operatives in Cuba looking to take Fidel out.

Like him or hate him, leave Fidel alone.

[FDRrocks]

30. That is what I'm saying.

Fidel is not a saint, not even a good guy, really... but WTF could we do for Cuba? Batista part deux? Or the reincarnation of Rios Mont?

The US has a horrible record on displacing 'dictators'.

[pandatimothy]

31. exactly

there is not much we could do for Cuba now that we are rebulding Iraq and Afghanistan.

Fidel is old and will die soon enough.

[Snellius]

32. Rove is back in charge of foreign policy

The Cold War's over. This is all Florida politics.

[havocmom]

33. Or the Bahamas is out of P.O. Boxes for large US corporations to move

their 'headquarters' into.

[sushi]

38. Bush must be careful

not to run out of regimes to change too soon. There are many more months before the election.

[Capn Sunshine]

40. There's only room for ONE dictator in the Florida straights

So Fidel has to go, as a favor to Jeb.