In “The Godfather Part 2,” Michael Corleone travels to Cuba on a money-making mission right before the revolution jumps off.
In that last scene prior to the chaos, the sunlight seems like it’s been turned up to “11” as Michael and his posse of capitalist cronies sit on a rooftop, literally having their cake and eating it, too.
Everything seems just a little too perfect, which is how things always seem right before you realize you’ve been walking around all night with a giant chunk of parsley wedged between your two front teeth.
President George W. Bush currently has a large chunk of something stuck in his teeth, but none of his top advisers seem to be telling him.
It’s called crow.
Perhaps they haven’t said anything because they don’t notice. When you see a man walking around with crow in his teeth day after day, you tend to become desensitized to it. And for Bush, crow has become a set of false teeth.
First it was tough talk about an American military plane and its crew held against their will in China, followed directly by his statement of desire to keep trade channels open with Beijing. Then it was maniacal ravings against the “axis of evil.” Now, in a multi-faceted scheme to distract the public from the fact that he and his administration most definitely knew about the possibility of terrorist attacks taking the form of airborne suicide bombers, Bush has once again launched an idiotic offensive.
Against Cuba, one of the most impoverished countries in the Americas.
Cuba isn’t our enemy. Their government is. Of course, that’s exactly what Bush has been saying recently, in a blatant attempt to pander to Cuban-American voters in Florida.
Once again, however, what he’s saying and what he’s doing seem to be in direct conflict with each other.
Bush has demanded the release of political prisoners, independently monitored elections, free speech for opposition parties, and a new government that is fully democratic.
I can’t fault him in theory. It really sounds like he cares about the Cuban people.
The only problem with this little pipe-dream of humanitarianism is that he’s making these demands while at the same time squeezing the economic vise-grip of an embargo that’s been steadily draining the wealth of the average Cuban for the past 40 years.
If Bush is so worried about the state of human rights in the world, then what exactly is he thinking continuing to do business with China, or Malaysia, or Saudi Arabia for that matter? All of those countries have committed human rights violations that make Cuba’s look like one of Robert Downey Jr.’s state-mandated trips to a celebrity rehab center.
And if political prisoners are causing the president to lose sleep at night, then I suggest he get off his high horse (I’m dropping clichés like Alan Houston drops mid-range jumpers) and pardon Leonard Peltier, a man who is being held without one shred of hard evidence that he committed any murders.
For that matter, if free and democratic elections are such a point of contention for Senor Bush, why did he seem so eager to wrap up the controversy that surrounded the last presidential election, and get into office?
Because it all comes down to the money and the power.
It is impossible to punish Castro without punishing the rest of the country. And even then, Castro will still be in a position of power, and hence capable of remaining relatively exempt from said punishment.
End the embargo now.