Cuba, China, Vietnam…what’s the difference?
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Is McCain’s position on Cuba just another example of pandering to the conservative base, a political move for cementing his vote in Florida, or does he really think that continuing decades worth of failed policy is going to change them?
When his “new found base” supported Chinese WTO membership, MFN status, and normalized trading relations with Vietnam it was oh so good for the country and put America into its proper position at forefront of the Global economy. However when the vote comes to older Cubans in Florida, McCain hides behind the American Flag spouting idiocy like…”we will never sit down with a regime that tortured my fellow solders in Vietnam”. Let me see, wasn’t it Vietnam who was doing most of this torturing? Wasn’t China who supported the communists in Vietnam with weapons, money, and advisors & troops? Wasn’t it China that held American prisoners during the Korean War and have yet to offer up any information about the vast number of missing troops. No, we know why the conservatives supported these opened ended agreements…to further line their corporate pockets with the benefits of cheap labor, exploit 3rd world countries resources without putting in environmental teeth into the agreements, and further bust the Unions without having to negotiate anything. It was the quick and easy path for the all mighty dollar. They will argue all day long about how this is good for our country in the long run and how it will change these countries, perhaps taking decades, into responsible, democratic entities.I was in Juarez in the late 80’s, before NAFTA, working on some equipment in a Malquiladoras plant. Juarez at that point in time was a stinking hole of a place with people living in cardboard shacks outside the plants. Pollution rolled freely out of the plants and made its way down toward the shacks where the children played. Guess what, since NAFTA things haven’t changed much. Yes, we a trading more with Mexico… by exploiting their people and resources even more. If they are doing so well, why do they still choose to pour over our borders only to be further exploited? NAFTA is an end product of the first Bush administration that some genius named Bill Clinton signed off on and claimed a great Bipartisan achievement and which Hillary has conveniently found recent amnesia on. I applaud Obama for at least speaking against NAFTA’s many holes and short comings, but its unfortunate he doesn’t currently have the political will to come out with specific fixes for this bastardization of fair and equitable trade.
So tell me, What’s the difference between Cuba, China, Vietnam, and even Mexico?
The conservative hypocrisy machine is running strong on these issues. John McCain is becoming more like the politics as usual candidate(which he previously loathed) with every passing day. What happened to the engineer of the Straight Talk Express?
Comment by Cuban on 27 February 2008:
BUNK. What are you smoking? The NEVILLE CHAMBERLIN party is at it again. Nonsense, and more nonsense.
Comment by elkhunter on 27 February 2008:
Spoken like a true NeoCon Sir. And I feel honored that you use such a historic reference. It is quite ironic though that Neville Chamberlain provides a great analog(analogue I guess if you are British) for the way the vast majority media and American voters in ‘04 kowtowed and gave a pass to new Hitlers and Unitarians of the world(see Dick Cheney, George Bush, Karl Rove, etc.) with out fight. Hopefully this new awakening of the American voter will bring back “for the People and by People” and not for private interest, lobbyists, and the others in the greedy underbelly. Point being is that McCain used to be “for the People by the People” with no excuses. But loosing in 2000 after being torpedoed by the above mentioned he is obviously doing a little Neville-ing himself. Another great irony is that there is no way in hell he can win without himself(our the minions) resulting to the same tactics that sunk him.
Comment by Cuban on 27 February 2008:
Fools are easily “honored” is only out of their ignorance.
Comment by elkhunter on 28 February 2008:
I do have to appologize for the NeoCon reference…I don’t know you and it was wrong especially on an issue that has effected you, your friends, and families so intimately. It is a shame that Cuban people’s plight and repression under Castro and his Communists is a political football and not getting resolved. The only resolution to a political conflict are either through negotiation, revolution, or conquest…right? It would be great after Raul takes the helm to see a faction of the Military step up depose the Communists. But I don’t know pretend to know Cuba and I don’t see how anyone in our government can without a dialog with the opposition. Opening dialogs with China and Vietnam were exactly the right right things to do. But when the door was opened, the pigs lined up at the trough, and gave away all negotiating points so we have little international legal ground produce any give and take effects on things like human rights, environmental responsibility, forced labor, intellectual and patent right, and the list goes on. The millions of innocents sitting in their jails for trying to have their own voice are still sitting there while the now “Global” corporations move their operations, now some from Mexico to China, to feed hardily.
Comment by Barney on 29 February 2008:
How did this drivel get moved up to the top again?
Comment by kimberly on 8 March 2008:
Confucius say: Sometimes the truth is bitter like the taste of the cancerous carp plucked from the putrid Yangtze.