When I was stationed in Gitmo, I used to watch the Cuban TV stations over the air. They played a lot of Charles Bronson movies.
I saw Fidel a few times. I would turn on the TV, and there he'd be, yackety-yack-yack-yack. I'd go out for a few hours, come home, turn on the TV, and he was still going!
I remember telling my dad when I called stateside that the Cubans were probably listening in. So he shouted, "FUCK CASTRO!"
I'm a Cold Warrior whose hatred of communism is a part of my DNA.
But we have diplomatic relations with countries which have far worse human rights records, folks. China. Russia. Far, far worse.
You know, I've met Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and read his
Gulag Archipelago, which is why Putin will always be nothing more than a KGB thug to me. Just thinking that bastard's name makes my lip curl.
List of diplomatic missions in Cuba
Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, Sweden. And 101 others.
It's time. For the very reason the Cuban people need us. I've literally seen them explode as they attempted to cross the world's largest active minefield to get to our base. I've talked at length with the ones who made it, and learned firsthand what life in Communist Cuba was like. It ain't pretty.
One day, when they were building a new fence inside their fence to stop the defections, one of the soldiers building the fence made a break for our side. He was immediately gunned down by the other soldiers. Right in front of an 18 year old US Marine who was fresh out of high school. I was the first person on the scene after it happened, and the poor kid was white as a ghost. His whole world had just changed.
You can bet that kid hates Commies, but he knows the difference between Commies and the captive Cuban people.
They need us. It's time.
