Cuba now in Syria... Shades of the Angola proxy war... but White House DENIES IT!!!

[JQPublic1]

Why don't you move to Cuba since you think it's so awesome. And while you're there, show your displeasure with Castro.

Because I am 100% American;.born and bred here. But Cuba does seem like a good place to retire to if we normalize relations with them. At least the meidcal care will be free!

I am American and am expressing my right to free speech. When I see people doing good things in the world I have the courage to speak out and give credit where it is due regardless of what my fellow Americans think about it. I am just a free thinker and my political vision is not clouded by partisan or group labels. Try it sometimes, it makes you feel better.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Why don't you move to Cuba since you think it's so awesome. And while you're there, show your displeasure with Castro.

Because I am 100% American;.born and bred here. But Cuba does seem like a good place to retire to if we normalize relations with them. At least the meidcal care will be free!

I am American and am expressing my right to free speech. When I see people doing good things in the world I have the courage to speak out and give credit where it is due regardless of what my fellow Americans think about it. I am just a free thinker and my political vision is not clouded by partisan or group labels. Try it sometimes, it makes you feel better.

Hitler did some good things too. What do you think about him?

 

[Avatar4321]

And we just opened the embassy in Cuba!

Now if we can only lift the embargo, the Americanization of Cuba will begin.

You mean the further enrichment of the murderous Castro gang will continue.

Oh ya? We should keep the embargo and leave the Casto's in power for another 50 years? And continue to let our greatest enemies woo them over while we twiddle our fingers?

You think rewarding that scenario is somehow better?

I think the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Just wait until a Wal Mart opens up in Havana.

So what your saying is voting Democrat in the inner cities for over 50 years straight and expecting change is insane?

 

[FA_Q2]

A lot of world leaders disagree with you, including the late great Nelson Mandela:

But it doesn't stop there: Black Americans generally seem to love Castro too. It is hard for Blacks anywhere to hate a man who supported anti-apartheid forces. They haven't forgotten how White Americans went the other way and supported the racist SA regime.

Call him what you will but Castro has done a lot for the developing nations of the world including training doctors for free and sending Cuban doctors on humanitarian missions across the planet. I think he has paid his dues for any murder charges heaped upon him.

A broken clock is right twice a day.

Castro decimated his people, imprisoned them, stole their freedom... To this day they drive 1950's cars even though they were once the prize of the Caribbean. During the revolution Cubans replaced a tyrant with a monster.

Fuck Fidel Castro. My great Uncle was allowed to visit the U.S. once. He gained 30 pounds in 1 month. Fuck Castro for what he's done to Cuba.

Some would rather see the fantasy rather than the blatant truth. Sad really.


The real question though is not how terrible Castro has been - for the vast majority of people this question is rather obvious to say the least. The question is what does America gain with continuing embargoes and hostile relations with Cuba?

The answer, I think, is obvious: nothing.

I would ask anyone that does not support Obama's normalizing relations here what they expect to gain from continued hostility as it is blatantly obvious that it does nothing whatsoever for the US.

Meanwhile, catering to Castro does everything for Castro, emboldens Castro and makes the US into chumps. Simple choice.

We have not catered anything to Castro and that would be irrelevant anyway. I don't care what it 'emboldens.'

You utterly evaded the question though - what does the US gain from continued embargo on Cuba?

So raising the embargo means more money for Cuba to spend on military involvement in Syria.
It is obvious. Tell me otherwise because even now with the embargo, Cuba is in Syria.

So you think that keeping the embargo in place is justified because Cuba will have less for defense spending?

The knat's influence that Cuba has in military matters is laughable. The REAL defense threat from Cuba is NOT Cuba's military but the fact that they align with our enemies and they are a perfect place to stage from considering how close they are. Cuban Missile Crisis anyone?

Cuba going into Syria is unchanged by lifting the embargo - they would have done that either way unless you can provide some actual proof that such is not the case. Again, we are gaining nothing through an embargo - if anything it is not worth the time, effort and money to maintain the silly practice.

 

[FA_Q2]

All I can say is that I respectfully disagree.... And so do a lot of people in dark and miserable places whose lives have been made better because of Castro.

Well your life has never been affected by Castro. Maybe people who were oppressed under even worse regime's than his can appreciate him, but only because they don't know any better.

Castro is a monster. Learn what's actually happening in Cuba. Not the Michael Moore fantasy.

I haven't seen the Michael Moore fantasy. I simply did my own research from a variety of sources pro and con. It seems to me the good outweighs the bad. Spys and traitors are dealt with severely by any government... Castro did what he had to do just as we have done in times of war and national emergencies.

What were the things Castro did? Please tell us.

By now you've seen post #68 and some of the wonderful things Castors' Cuba has done.
Here is another example of Communist Cuba's Christian creed.. Jesus would be proud:

If you are objective you can find the truth if you look for it. I told you why I believe Cuba is doing something positive to make the world a better place for the poor and developing nations of the world. Many of those positive things are occurring outside of Cuba where any person interested can observe it.

Cuba sends thousands of doctors to third world countries without any expectations of compensation to combat illnesses that might eventually threaten us all. Google that for the details if you wish. There ought to be references that lead you to the details and sources of that input.

The Cuban medical school trains medical students from 110 countries to be doctors with no apparent strings attached except the student must promise to serve in poor communities for a specific time.

That quest for a medical doctorate includes tuition free education, shelter and sustenance plus a small stipend. Search for Americans who graduated from that school and see what they say about that!

The CIA world fact book is another excellent source for comparing Cuba's mortality rates with other countries. Google it!

I can't guarantee you will find something to convince you that Cuba is a godsend for people who are exploited by western medicine facilities and pharmaceutical companies. You just have to examine the available evidence for yourself.

I'm sure from the viewpoint if someone who has no idea what they're talking about, Castro must look wonderful. But if you have relatives there, if you remember the atrocities, the firing squads, the political prisoners, the people fleeing by raft, the ongoing supression of free speech, the ongoing oppression of freedom, then you think a little differently of the evil Castro.

You cannot help the willfully blind.

He stated outright that mass murders were perfectly justified - obviously he can justify anything.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Now if we can only lift the embargo, the Americanization of Cuba will begin.

You mean the further enrichment of the murderous Castro gang will continue.

Oh ya? We should keep the embargo and leave the Casto's in power for another 50 years? And continue to let our greatest enemies woo them over while we twiddle our fingers?

You think rewarding that scenario is somehow better?

I think the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Just wait until a Wal Mart opens up in Havana.

So what your saying is voting Democrat in the inner cities for over 50 years straight and expecting change is insane?

What kind of change in the inner city are you wondering about? The huge decrease in violence over the last 25 years? The programs that feed children?

 

[healthmyths]

A broken clock is right twice a day.

Castro decimated his people, imprisoned them, stole their freedom... To this day they drive 1950's cars even though they were once the prize of the Caribbean. During the revolution Cubans replaced a tyrant with a monster.

Fuck Fidel Castro. My great Uncle was allowed to visit the U.S. once. He gained 30 pounds in 1 month. Fuck Castro for what he's done to Cuba.

Some would rather see the fantasy rather than the blatant truth. Sad really.


The real question though is not how terrible Castro has been - for the vast majority of people this question is rather obvious to say the least. The question is what does America gain with continuing embargoes and hostile relations with Cuba?

The answer, I think, is obvious: nothing.

I would ask anyone that does not support Obama's normalizing relations here what they expect to gain from continued hostility as it is blatantly obvious that it does nothing whatsoever for the US.

Meanwhile, catering to Castro does everything for Castro, emboldens Castro and makes the US into chumps. Simple choice.

We have not catered anything to Castro and that would be irrelevant anyway. I don't care what it 'emboldens.'

You utterly evaded the question though - what does the US gain from continued embargo on Cuba?

So raising the embargo means more money for Cuba to spend on military involvement in Syria.
It is obvious. Tell me otherwise because even now with the embargo, Cuba is in Syria.

So you think that keeping the embargo in place is justified because Cuba will have less for defense spending?

The knat's influence that Cuba has in military matters is laughable. The REAL defense threat from Cuba is NOT Cuba's military but the fact that they align with our enemies and they are a perfect place to stage from considering how close they are. Cuban Missile Crisis anyone?

Cuba going into Syria is unchanged by lifting the embargo - they would have done that either way unless you can provide some actual proof that such is not the case. Again, we are gaining nothing through an embargo - if anything it is not worth the time, effort and money to maintain the silly practice.

Maybe if you were around as I was when Castro became the dictator and these actions were taken by his revolution.

What’s often forgotten, though, is that the embargo was actually triggered by something concrete:
an enormous pile of American assets that Castro seized in the process of nationalizing the Cuban economy.
Some of these assets were the vacation homes and bank accounts of wealthy individuals.
But the bulk of the confiscated property — originally valued at $1.8 billion, which at 6 percent simple interest translates to nearly $7 billion today — was sugar factories, mines, oil refineries and other business operations belonging to American corporations, among them the Coca-Cola Co., Exxon and the First National Bank of Boston. A 2009 article in the Inter-American Law Review described Castro’s nationalization of U.S. assets as the “largest uncompensated taking of American property by a foreign government in history.”

Today, the nearly 6,000 property claims filed in the wake of the Cuban revolution almost never come up as a significant sticking point in discussions of a prospective Cuban-American thaw. But they remain active — and more to the point, the federal law that lays out the conditions of a possible reconciliation with Cuba, the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, says they have to be resolved. According to that statute, said Michael Kelly, a professor of international law at Creighton University in Nebraska, settling the certified property claims “is one of the first dominoes that has to fall in a whole series of dominoes for the embargo to be lifted.”
In 1960, the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower punished Castro’s expropriation of American assets by sharply cutting the amount of sugar the U.S. was buying from Cuba. “We kind of went ballistic at the thought that anyone would take our property,” said Jonathan Hansen, a faculty associate at Harvard University’s Center for Latin American Studies. Tempers ran hot in both directions: In a speech, Castro vowed to separate Americans in Cuba from all of their possessions, “down to the nails in their shoes.” The standoff culminated in a near-total embargo on American exports to Cuba and a reduction of sugar imports to zero.

Other countries that had holdings in Cuba — including Switzerland, Canada, Spain and France — were more amenable to Castro’s terms, apparently convinced that there was no chance they’d ever get a better deal. But the Americans who had lost property wanted cash and submitted official descriptions of what had been taken from them to the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission at the Department of Justice.
Meanwhile, U.S. relations with Cuba deteriorated. Diplomatic ties were cut. An attempt by President John F. Kennedy to overthrow Castro failed, and a standoff over Soviet missiles in 1962 brought the world as close to nuclear war as it has ever come. The invisible economic wall, which by then had been expanded to ban virtually all imports from Cuba, had become part of something much larger.
Cuba, you owe us $7 billion

 

[healthmyths]

A broken clock is right twice a day.

Castro decimated his people, imprisoned them, stole their freedom... To this day they drive 1950's cars even though they were once the prize of the Caribbean. During the revolution Cubans replaced a tyrant with a monster.

Fuck Fidel Castro. My great Uncle was allowed to visit the U.S. once. He gained 30 pounds in 1 month. Fuck Castro for what he's done to Cuba.

Some would rather see the fantasy rather than the blatant truth. Sad really.


The real question though is not how terrible Castro has been - for the vast majority of people this question is rather obvious to say the least. The question is what does America gain with continuing embargoes and hostile relations with Cuba?

The answer, I think, is obvious: nothing.

I would ask anyone that does not support Obama's normalizing relations here what they expect to gain from continued hostility as it is blatantly obvious that it does nothing whatsoever for the US.

Meanwhile, catering to Castro does everything for Castro, emboldens Castro and makes the US into chumps. Simple choice.

We have not catered anything to Castro and that would be irrelevant anyway. I don't care what it 'emboldens.'

You utterly evaded the question though - what does the US gain from continued embargo on Cuba?

So raising the embargo means more money for Cuba to spend on military involvement in Syria.
It is obvious. Tell me otherwise because even now with the embargo, Cuba is in Syria.

So you think that keeping the embargo in place is justified because Cuba will have less for defense spending?

The knat's influence that Cuba has in military matters is laughable. The REAL defense threat from Cuba is NOT Cuba's military but the fact that they align with our enemies and they are a perfect place to stage from considering how close they are. Cuban Missile Crisis anyone?

Cuba going into Syria is unchanged by lifting the embargo - they would have done that either way unless you can provide some actual proof that such is not the case. Again, we are gaining nothing through an embargo - if anything it is not worth the time, effort and money to maintain the silly practice.

FYI... there is no "knat"! There is a "gnat"! Which is what you should have known if you were not so keen on the BIG details and obviously the little details regarding the embargo is beneath you i.e. just as learning out to use a proper term...i.e. it is "gnat's influence" OK??? You just show your lack of education by not taking care in the little details!

 

[JQPublic1]

Why don't you move to Cuba since you think it's so awesome. And while you're there, show your displeasure with Castro.

Because I am 100% American;.born and bred here. But Cuba does seem like a good place to retire to if we normalize relations with them. At least the meidcal care will be free!

I am American and am expressing my right to free speech. When I see people doing good things in the world I have the courage to speak out and give credit where it is due regardless of what my fellow Americans think about it. I am just a free thinker and my political vision is not clouded by partisan or group labels. Try it sometimes, it makes you feel better.

Hitler did some good things too. What do you think about him?

There is no comparison to be made between Castro and Hitler. From the jingoistic German perspective Hitler did good things for Germany. Castro is doing good things for the 3rd world and the under served nations of the world.

 

[JQPublic1]

Well your life has never been affected by Castro. Maybe people who were oppressed under even worse regime's than his can appreciate him, but only because they don't know any better.

Castro is a monster. Learn what's actually happening in Cuba. Not the Michael Moore fantasy.

I haven't seen the Michael Moore fantasy. I simply did my own research from a variety of sources pro and con. It seems to me the good outweighs the bad. Spys and traitors are dealt with severely by any government... Castro did what he had to do just as we have done in times of war and national emergencies.

What were the things Castro did? Please tell us.

By now you've seen post #68 and some of the wonderful things Castors' Cuba has done.
Here is another example of Communist Cuba's Christian creed.. Jesus would be proud:

If you are objective you can find the truth if you look for it. I told you why I believe Cuba is doing something positive to make the world a better place for the poor and developing nations of the world. Many of those positive things are occurring outside of Cuba where any person interested can observe it.

Cuba sends thousands of doctors to third world countries without any expectations of compensation to combat illnesses that might eventually threaten us all. Google that for the details if you wish. There ought to be references that lead you to the details and sources of that input.

The Cuban medical school trains medical students from 110 countries to be doctors with no apparent strings attached except the student must promise to serve in poor communities for a specific time.

That quest for a medical doctorate includes tuition free education, shelter and sustenance plus a small stipend. Search for Americans who graduated from that school and see what they say about that!

The CIA world fact book is another excellent source for comparing Cuba's mortality rates with other countries. Google it!

I can't guarantee you will find something to convince you that Cuba is a godsend for people who are exploited by western medicine facilities and pharmaceutical companies. You just have to examine the available evidence for yourself.

I'm sure from the viewpoint if someone who has no idea what they're talking about, Castro must look wonderful. But if you have relatives there, if you remember the atrocities, the firing squads, the political prisoners, the people fleeing by raft, the ongoing supression of free speech, the ongoing oppression of freedom, then you think a little differently of the evil Castro.

You cannot help the willfully blind.

He stated outright that mass murders were perfectly justified - obviously he can justify anything.

Do you apply the same standards to America and her history? Wash the blood from your own hands before you point your bloody fingers at someone else!

I don' condone the taking of human life under any circumstances but I can make comparisons between those who do. I aso have the sense to see that virtually every nation iin the industrialized west has undertaken some sort of purging to effect military goals. The Communists countries are no different. If you judge Castro, judge them all.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Well your life has never been affected by Castro. Maybe people who were oppressed under even worse regime's than his can appreciate him, but only because they don't know any better.

Castro is a monster. Learn what's actually happening in Cuba. Not the Michael Moore fantasy.

I haven't seen the Michael Moore fantasy. I simply did my own research from a variety of sources pro and con. It seems to me the good outweighs the bad. Spys and traitors are dealt with severely by any government... Castro did what he had to do just as we have done in times of war and national emergencies.

What were the things Castro did? Please tell us.

By now you've seen post #68 and some of the wonderful things Castors' Cuba has done.
Here is another example of Communist Cuba's Christian creed.. Jesus would be proud:

If you are objective you can find the truth if you look for it. I told you why I believe Cuba is doing something positive to make the world a better place for the poor and developing nations of the world. Many of those positive things are occurring outside of Cuba where any person interested can observe it.

Cuba sends thousands of doctors to third world countries without any expectations of compensation to combat illnesses that might eventually threaten us all. Google that for the details if you wish. There ought to be references that lead you to the details and sources of that input.

The Cuban medical school trains medical students from 110 countries to be doctors with no apparent strings attached except the student must promise to serve in poor communities for a specific time.

That quest for a medical doctorate includes tuition free education, shelter and sustenance plus a small stipend. Search for Americans who graduated from that school and see what they say about that!

The CIA world fact book is another excellent source for comparing Cuba's mortality rates with other countries. Google it!

I can't guarantee you will find something to convince you that Cuba is a godsend for people who are exploited by western medicine facilities and pharmaceutical companies. You just have to examine the available evidence for yourself.

I'm sure from the viewpoint if someone who has no idea what they're talking about, Castro must look wonderful. But if you have relatives there, if you remember the atrocities, the firing squads, the political prisoners, the people fleeing by raft, the ongoing supression of free speech, the ongoing oppression of freedom, then you think a little differently of the evil Castro.

You cannot help the willfully blind.

He stated outright that mass murders were perfectly justified - obviously he can justify anything.

There's no reasoning with him

 

[JQPublic1]

Some would rather see the fantasy rather than the blatant truth. Sad really.


The real question though is not how terrible Castro has been - for the vast majority of people this question is rather obvious to say the least. The question is what does America gain with continuing embargoes and hostile relations with Cuba?

The answer, I think, is obvious: nothing.

I would ask anyone that does not support Obama's normalizing relations here what they expect to gain from continued hostility as it is blatantly obvious that it does nothing whatsoever for the US.

Meanwhile, catering to Castro does everything for Castro, emboldens Castro and makes the US into chumps. Simple choice.

We have not catered anything to Castro and that would be irrelevant anyway. I don't care what it 'emboldens.'

You utterly evaded the question though - what does the US gain from continued embargo on Cuba?

So raising the embargo means more money for Cuba to spend on military involvement in Syria.
It is obvious. Tell me otherwise because even now with the embargo, Cuba is in Syria.

So you think that keeping the embargo in place is justified because Cuba will have less for defense spending?

The knat's influence that Cuba has in military matters is laughable. The REAL defense threat from Cuba is NOT Cuba's military but the fact that they align with our enemies and they are a perfect place to stage from considering how close they are. Cuban Missile Crisis anyone?

Cuba going into Syria is unchanged by lifting the embargo - they would have done that either way unless you can provide some actual proof that such is not the case. Again, we are gaining nothing through an embargo - if anything it is not worth the time, effort and money to maintain the silly practice.

Maybe if you were around as I was when Castro became the dictator and these actions were taken by his revolution.

What’s often forgotten, though, is that the embargo was actually triggered by something concrete:
an enormous pile of American assets that Castro seized in the process of nationalizing the Cuban economy.
Some of these assets were the vacation homes and bank accounts of wealthy individuals.
But the bulk of the confiscated property — originally valued at $1.8 billion, which at 6 percent simple interest translates to nearly $7 billion today — was sugar factories, mines, oil refineries and other business operations belonging to American corporations, among them the Coca-Cola Co., Exxon and the First National Bank of Boston. A 2009 article in the Inter-American Law Review described Castro’s nationalization of U.S. assets as the “largest uncompensated taking of American property by a foreign government in history.”

Today, the nearly 6,000 property claims filed in the wake of the Cuban revolution almost never come up as a significant sticking point in discussions of a prospective Cuban-American thaw. But they remain active — and more to the point, the federal law that lays out the conditions of a possible reconciliation with Cuba, the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, says they have to be resolved. According to that statute, said Michael Kelly, a professor of international law at Creighton University in Nebraska, settling the certified property claims “is one of the first dominoes that has to fall in a whole series of dominoes for the embargo to be lifted.”
In 1960, the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower punished Castro’s expropriation of American assets by sharply cutting the amount of sugar the U.S. was buying from Cuba. “We kind of went ballistic at the thought that anyone would take our property,” said Jonathan Hansen, a faculty associate at Harvard University’s Center for Latin American Studies. Tempers ran hot in both directions: In a speech, Castro vowed to separate Americans in Cuba from all of their possessions, “down to the nails in their shoes.” The standoff culminated in a near-total embargo on American exports to Cuba and a reduction of sugar imports to zero.

Other countries that had holdings in Cuba — including Switzerland, Canada, Spain and France — were more amenable to Castro’s terms, apparently convinced that there was no chance they’d ever get a better deal. But the Americans who had lost property wanted cash and submitted official descriptions of what had been taken from them to the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission at the Department of Justice.
Meanwhile, U.S. relations with Cuba deteriorated. Diplomatic ties were cut. An attempt by President John F. Kennedy to overthrow Castro failed, and a standoff over Soviet missiles in 1962 brought the world as close to nuclear war as it has ever come. The invisible economic wall, which by then had been expanded to ban virtually all imports from Cuba, had become part of something much larger.
Cuba, you owe us $7 billion

My fellow Americans, must everything revolve around material wealth and property? What is it to gain the world if America loses it's soul? Avarice is the child of materialism and vanity.

 

[JQPublic1]

I haven't seen the Michael Moore fantasy. I simply did my own research from a variety of sources pro and con. It seems to me the good outweighs the bad. Spys and traitors are dealt with severely by any government... Castro did what he had to do just as we have done in times of war and national emergencies.

What were the things Castro did? Please tell us.

By now you've seen post #68 and some of the wonderful things Castors' Cuba has done.
Here is another example of Communist Cuba's Christian creed.. Jesus would be proud:

If you are objective you can find the truth if you look for it. I told you why I believe Cuba is doing something positive to make the world a better place for the poor and developing nations of the world. Many of those positive things are occurring outside of Cuba where any person interested can observe it.

Cuba sends thousands of doctors to third world countries without any expectations of compensation to combat illnesses that might eventually threaten us all. Google that for the details if you wish. There ought to be references that lead you to the details and sources of that input.

The Cuban medical school trains medical students from 110 countries to be doctors with no apparent strings attached except the student must promise to serve in poor communities for a specific time.

That quest for a medical doctorate includes tuition free education, shelter and sustenance plus a small stipend. Search for Americans who graduated from that school and see what they say about that!

The CIA world fact book is another excellent source for comparing Cuba's mortality rates with other countries. Google it!

I can't guarantee you will find something to convince you that Cuba is a godsend for people who are exploited by western medicine facilities and pharmaceutical companies. You just have to examine the available evidence for yourself.

I'm sure from the viewpoint if someone who has no idea what they're talking about, Castro must look wonderful. But if you have relatives there, if you remember the atrocities, the firing squads, the political prisoners, the people fleeing by raft, the ongoing supression of free speech, the ongoing oppression of freedom, then you think a little differently of the evil Castro.

You cannot help the willfully blind.

He stated outright that mass murders were perfectly justified - obviously he can justify anything.

There's no reasoning with him

Obviously , the same can be said of YOU!

 

[Moonglow]

Assad's first big Russia-backed campaign is not going well
"Confirmed reports indicate that pro-regime fighters have seized only six villages and towns, while rebel forces repelled heavy attacks against several key positions," Kozak writes. He illustrates this point with a more granular map of the fighting in the area, which shows both towns taken by the regime and those recaptured by the rebels:
Assad's first big Russia-backed campaign is not going well

 

[healthmyths]

Meanwhile, catering to Castro does everything for Castro, emboldens Castro and makes the US into chumps. Simple choice.

We have not catered anything to Castro and that would be irrelevant anyway. I don't care what it 'emboldens.'

You utterly evaded the question though - what does the US gain from continued embargo on Cuba?

So raising the embargo means more money for Cuba to spend on military involvement in Syria.
It is obvious. Tell me otherwise because even now with the embargo, Cuba is in Syria.

So you think that keeping the embargo in place is justified because Cuba will have less for defense spending?

The knat's influence that Cuba has in military matters is laughable. The REAL defense threat from Cuba is NOT Cuba's military but the fact that they align with our enemies and they are a perfect place to stage from considering how close they are. Cuban Missile Crisis anyone?

Cuba going into Syria is unchanged by lifting the embargo - they would have done that either way unless you can provide some actual proof that such is not the case. Again, we are gaining nothing through an embargo - if anything it is not worth the time, effort and money to maintain the silly practice.

Maybe if you were around as I was when Castro became the dictator and these actions were taken by his revolution.

What’s often forgotten, though, is that the embargo was actually triggered by something concrete:
an enormous pile of American assets that Castro seized in the process of nationalizing the Cuban economy.
Some of these assets were the vacation homes and bank accounts of wealthy individuals.
But the bulk of the confiscated property — originally valued at $1.8 billion, which at 6 percent simple interest translates to nearly $7 billion today — was sugar factories, mines, oil refineries and other business operations belonging to American corporations, among them the Coca-Cola Co., Exxon and the First National Bank of Boston. A 2009 article in the Inter-American Law Review described Castro’s nationalization of U.S. assets as the “largest uncompensated taking of American property by a foreign government in history.”

Today, the nearly 6,000 property claims filed in the wake of the Cuban revolution almost never come up as a significant sticking point in discussions of a prospective Cuban-American thaw. But they remain active — and more to the point, the federal law that lays out the conditions of a possible reconciliation with Cuba, the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, says they have to be resolved. According to that statute, said Michael Kelly, a professor of international law at Creighton University in Nebraska, settling the certified property claims “is one of the first dominoes that has to fall in a whole series of dominoes for the embargo to be lifted.”
In 1960, the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower punished Castro’s expropriation of American assets by sharply cutting the amount of sugar the U.S. was buying from Cuba. “We kind of went ballistic at the thought that anyone would take our property,” said Jonathan Hansen, a faculty associate at Harvard University’s Center for Latin American Studies. Tempers ran hot in both directions: In a speech, Castro vowed to separate Americans in Cuba from all of their possessions, “down to the nails in their shoes.” The standoff culminated in a near-total embargo on American exports to Cuba and a reduction of sugar imports to zero.

Other countries that had holdings in Cuba — including Switzerland, Canada, Spain and France — were more amenable to Castro’s terms, apparently convinced that there was no chance they’d ever get a better deal. But the Americans who had lost property wanted cash and submitted official descriptions of what had been taken from them to the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission at the Department of Justice.
Meanwhile, U.S. relations with Cuba deteriorated. Diplomatic ties were cut. An attempt by President John F. Kennedy to overthrow Castro failed, and a standoff over Soviet missiles in 1962 brought the world as close to nuclear war as it has ever come. The invisible economic wall, which by then had been expanded to ban virtually all imports from Cuba, had become part of something much larger.
Cuba, you owe us $7 billion

My fellow Americans, must everything revolve around material wealth and property? What is it to gain the world if America loses it's soul? Avarice is the child of materialism and vanity.

HOW f...king PIOUS!!! YOU really a hypocrite!
YOU think the embargo was JUST because of material wealth and property? YOU dummy!
On April 17, 1961, around 1,200 exiles, armed with American weapons and using American landing craft, waded ashore at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The hope was that the exile force would serve as a rallying point for the Cuban citizenry, who would rise up and overthrow Castro’s government. The plan immediately fell apart–the landing force met with unexpectedly rapid counterattacks from Castro’s military, the tiny Cuban air force sank most of the exiles’ supply ships, the United States refrained from providing necessary air support, and the expected uprising never happened. Over 100 of the attackers were killed, and more than 1,100 were captured.

These "exiles" WERE NOT doing it for wealth or property! Geez you have no respect for people that wanted to get rid of Castro.
The Bay of Pigs invasion begins - Apr 17, 1961 - HISTORY.com
So tell me if Castro's Cuba was such a great place why did this happen?
From 1959 through 1993, some 1.2 million Cubans (about 10% of the current population) left the island for the United States,[24] often by sea in small boats and fragile rafts. In the early years, a number of those who could claim dual Spanish-Cuban citizenship left for Spain

 

[Wyatt earp]

Why don't you move to Cuba since you think it's so awesome. And while you're there, show your displeasure with Castro.

Because I am 100% American;.born and bred here. But Cuba does seem like a good place to retire to if we normalize relations with them. At least the meidcal care will be free!

I am American and am expressing my right to free speech. When I see people doing good things in the world I have the courage to speak out and give credit where it is due regardless of what my fellow Americans think about it. I am just a free thinker and my political vision is not clouded by partisan or group labels. Try it sometimes, it makes you feel better.

You are retarded, probably 14 years old and don't remember Cubans coming here in inner tubes and stuff over the ocean



Man 'Drives' from Cuba to USA:

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

Why don't you move to Cuba since you think it's so awesome. And while you're there, show your displeasure with Castro.

Because I am 100% American;.born and bred here. But Cuba does seem like a good place to retire to if we normalize relations with them. At least the meidcal care will be free!

I am American and am expressing my right to free speech. When I see people doing good things in the world I have the courage to speak out and give credit where it is due regardless of what my fellow Americans think about it. I am just a free thinker and my political vision is not clouded by partisan or group labels. Try it sometimes, it makes you feel better.

Medical care is free, eh? That speaks for itself. It also explains why you think Castro is a good guy and why democrats should not be allowed to vote.

 

[JQPublic1]

HOW f...king PIOUS!!! YOU really a hypocrite!
YOU think the embargo was JUST because of material wealth and property?

Are you talking to me or to the guy who started talking about how much Cuba owes the US for nationalizing privately owned American citizens' property.He is the one who thinks the embargo was JUST because of material wealth and property... perhaps you should direct your animus at him.

These "exiles" WERE NOT doing it for wealth or property! Geez you have no respect for people that wanted to get rid of Castro.

Again, I think you are misdirecting your vitriol. Give it to the guy who actually said what you think I said.

So tell me if Castro's Cuba was such a great place why did this happen?
From 1959 through 1993, some 1.2 million Cubans (about 10% of the current population) left the island for the United States,[24] often by sea in small boats and fragile rafts. In the early years, a number of those who could claim dual Spanish-Cuban citizenship left for Spain

If Cuba was so great during the Batiste era, why did the revolution occur. Consider too that Castro had to have the a lot of Cubans behind him to pull it off.

You speak of a measly 10% of Cubans who became refugees fleeing their homeland. The 90% who stayed loyal to their evolutionary hero are invisible, eh?

Do you remember when Castro flung open the cell doors of his prisons and let all the criminals and undesirables as well as those who just wanted to go make their way to America or wherever? These are the people seen in photos floating precariously in rickety boats and on fragile rafts.

And while some here speak of Cuba being an Island prison, the hard evidence doesn't really support that premise.

1. soldiers and doctors are sent all over the third world to fight or treat vulnerable populations.
Some have defected but most have not! Why don't they all defect?

2. There is no wall around Cuba to keep people in. Relatives have been allowed to come to Cuba from mainland USA and are free to travel unmolested and return to the USA.

 

[JQPublic1]

Why don't you move to Cuba since you think it's so awesome. And while you're there, show your displeasure with Castro.

Because I am 100% American;.born and bred here. But Cuba does seem like a good place to retire to if we normalize relations with them. At least the meidcal care will be free!

I am American and am expressing my right to free speech. When I see people doing good things in the world I have the courage to speak out and give credit where it is due regardless of what my fellow Americans think about it. I am just a free thinker and my political vision is not clouded by partisan or group labels. Try it sometimes, it makes you feel better.

Medical care is free, eh? That speaks for itself. It also explains why you think Castro is a good guy and why democrats should not be allowed to vote.

Indeed, I believe as Bernie sanders does, that education and medical care should be free to all American citizens.

If you believe people who think like I do should NOT be allowed to vote, you are a hypocrite who spits on the US Constitution. I guess you will be miserable for the rest of your life because we will vote.

 

[FA_Q2]

Some would rather see the fantasy rather than the blatant truth. Sad really.


The real question though is not how terrible Castro has been - for the vast majority of people this question is rather obvious to say the least. The question is what does America gain with continuing embargoes and hostile relations with Cuba?

The answer, I think, is obvious: nothing.

I would ask anyone that does not support Obama's normalizing relations here what they expect to gain from continued hostility as it is blatantly obvious that it does nothing whatsoever for the US.

Meanwhile, catering to Castro does everything for Castro, emboldens Castro and makes the US into chumps. Simple choice.

We have not catered anything to Castro and that would be irrelevant anyway. I don't care what it 'emboldens.'

You utterly evaded the question though - what does the US gain from continued embargo on Cuba?

So raising the embargo means more money for Cuba to spend on military involvement in Syria.
It is obvious. Tell me otherwise because even now with the embargo, Cuba is in Syria.

So you think that keeping the embargo in place is justified because Cuba will have less for defense spending?

The knat's influence that Cuba has in military matters is laughable. The REAL defense threat from Cuba is NOT Cuba's military but the fact that they align with our enemies and they are a perfect place to stage from considering how close they are. Cuban Missile Crisis anyone?

Cuba going into Syria is unchanged by lifting the embargo - they would have done that either way unless you can provide some actual proof that such is not the case. Again, we are gaining nothing through an embargo - if anything it is not worth the time, effort and money to maintain the silly practice.

Maybe if you were around as I was when Castro became the dictator and these actions were taken by his revolution.

What’s often forgotten, though, is that the embargo was actually triggered by something concrete:
an enormous pile of American assets that Castro seized in the process of nationalizing the Cuban economy.
Some of these assets were the vacation homes and bank accounts of wealthy individuals.
But the bulk of the confiscated property — originally valued at $1.8 billion, which at 6 percent simple interest translates to nearly $7 billion today — was sugar factories, mines, oil refineries and other business operations belonging to American corporations, among them the Coca-Cola Co., Exxon and the First National Bank of Boston. A 2009 article in the Inter-American Law Review described Castro’s nationalization of U.S. assets as the “largest uncompensated taking of American property by a foreign government in history.”

Today, the nearly 6,000 property claims filed in the wake of the Cuban revolution almost never come up as a significant sticking point in discussions of a prospective Cuban-American thaw. But they remain active — and more to the point, the federal law that lays out the conditions of a possible reconciliation with Cuba, the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, says they have to be resolved. According to that statute, said Michael Kelly, a professor of international law at Creighton University in Nebraska, settling the certified property claims “is one of the first dominoes that has to fall in a whole series of dominoes for the embargo to be lifted.”
In 1960, the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower punished Castro’s expropriation of American assets by sharply cutting the amount of sugar the U.S. was buying from Cuba. “We kind of went ballistic at the thought that anyone would take our property,” said Jonathan Hansen, a faculty associate at Harvard University’s Center for Latin American Studies. Tempers ran hot in both directions: In a speech, Castro vowed to separate Americans in Cuba from all of their possessions, “down to the nails in their shoes.” The standoff culminated in a near-total embargo on American exports to Cuba and a reduction of sugar imports to zero.

Other countries that had holdings in Cuba — including Switzerland, Canada, Spain and France — were more amenable to Castro’s terms, apparently convinced that there was no chance they’d ever get a better deal. But the Americans who had lost property wanted cash and submitted official descriptions of what had been taken from them to the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission at the Department of Justice.
Meanwhile, U.S. relations with Cuba deteriorated. Diplomatic ties were cut. An attempt by President John F. Kennedy to overthrow Castro failed, and a standoff over Soviet missiles in 1962 brought the world as close to nuclear war as it has ever come. The invisible economic wall, which by then had been expanded to ban virtually all imports from Cuba, had become part of something much larger.
Cuba, you owe us $7 billion

And yet, you fail to answer my question at all.

Care to try again? What does the US gain by continuing the embargo?

Some would rather see the fantasy rather than the blatant truth. Sad really.


The real question though is not how terrible Castro has been - for the vast majority of people this question is rather obvious to say the least. The question is what does America gain with continuing embargoes and hostile relations with Cuba?

The answer, I think, is obvious: nothing.

I would ask anyone that does not support Obama's normalizing relations here what they expect to gain from continued hostility as it is blatantly obvious that it does nothing whatsoever for the US.

Meanwhile, catering to Castro does everything for Castro, emboldens Castro and makes the US into chumps. Simple choice.

We have not catered anything to Castro and that would be irrelevant anyway. I don't care what it 'emboldens.'

You utterly evaded the question though - what does the US gain from continued embargo on Cuba?

So raising the embargo means more money for Cuba to spend on military involvement in Syria.
It is obvious. Tell me otherwise because even now with the embargo, Cuba is in Syria.

So you think that keeping the embargo in place is justified because Cuba will have less for defense spending?

The knat's influence that Cuba has in military matters is laughable. The REAL defense threat from Cuba is NOT Cuba's military but the fact that they align with our enemies and they are a perfect place to stage from considering how close they are. Cuban Missile Crisis anyone?

Cuba going into Syria is unchanged by lifting the embargo - they would have done that either way unless you can provide some actual proof that such is not the case. Again, we are gaining nothing through an embargo - if anything it is not worth the time, effort and money to maintain the silly practice.

FYI... there is no "knat"! There is a "gnat"! Which is what you should have known if you were not so keen on the BIG details and obviously the little details regarding the embargo is beneath you i.e. just as learning out to use a proper term...i.e. it is "gnat's influence" OK??? You just show your lack of education by not taking care in the little details!

OOOOHHH. A typo.

When you are done deflecting you might try and address the point.