Castro: US Equals Nazis

Here’s a nifty little diplomatic tidbit for you all.

The US mission in Cuba had a Christmas display that featured “a Santa Claus, candy canes and white lights wrapped around palm trees — and a sign reading “75,” a reference to the 75 Cuban dissidents jailed last year”. The Cuban government was, as you can imagine, a bit nonplussed and demanded an apology. The head of the US Mission, told them to get stuffed, though in far more diplomatic terms.

So Cuba has decided to fight back, with a billboard featuring photos from Abu Ghraib and a swastika, overlaid with a “Made in the USA” label, along with othre smaller Abu Ghraib photos on signs at other places around the country.

The US Mission is not cowed.

A diplomat at the mission noted the abuse of prisoners at Iraq (news – web sites)’s Abu Ghraib prison had been widely reported and discussed openly and said those responsible were being prosecuted.

“On the other hand, the Cuban government does not allow a single word of dissent in its media, jails those who dare espouse different ideas and has not allowed (anyone) to visit Cuban political prisoners since the late 1980s,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the mission’s diplomatic status.

Luckily for Cuba, there’s always an apologist to the tyranny who’s willing to jump up and defend Castro. In this case, it’s a former head of the US Mission.

Wayne Smith, who headed the U.S. mission here during the Carter and Reagan administrations and has long advocated restoring normal diplomatic relations with Cuba, said he thought the images of prisoner abuse in Iraq were an appropriate response by Castro’s regime.

“If I were in their shoes, this is what I would do — call attention to the fact that the United States is now guilty of torture, of massive violations of human rights,” Smith said by telephone from Washington.

For a former high-ranking diplomat, this man lacks a certain amount of brainpower, doesn’t he? First, the US is not guilty of torture. The worst that’s been leved about the US has come from the International Red Cross that said that US policies in Guantanimo Bay has been “tantamount to torture”. And that, gentle readers, is a matter of opinion and a far, far cry from actual torture.

And massive violations of human rights? Where? Abu Ghraib? Look, say what you want about what happened there, but the anonymous diplomat was right – what our soldiers did at Abu Ghraib was wrong but they are being investigated and some have already been punished. But here’s a truth that’s much harder for people like Wayne Smith to hear. The photographs that came out of Abu Ghraib are child’s play compared to what happens on a pretty regular basis in college fraternities to pledges. Those prisoners in those photos could have endured more “human rights” violations had they tried to enter the cool frat at Harvard. Ninnies like Smith will breezily equate mistakes made in our open and free society to the honest-to-God torture and human rights violations committed in places like Cuba because in their world there really is no difference.

Want more from Smith? Of course you do.

“Yes, I’d like to see the 75 all released, but we’re in no position now to criticize anyone,” he said.

But the billboard’s Nazi reference went too far, Smith added.

And immediately after this statement, black-clad stormtroopers burst into Smith’s house, beat him, and carted him off to prison indefinitely.

No? Wow…not only do we suck at this whole freedom and liberty thing, we’re the world’s worst fascists, too! Maybe we do have something we can learn from Castro after all, huh? But it was nice to say that the Nazi reference “went too far”. But, of course, not everyone agrees with even that slight concession to the world where the rest of us live.

A pair of Australian tourists passing by called the billboard tasteless, while a Greek traveler said it simply represented the truth.

“These are the crimes in Iraq, the torture of Iraqi people by the Americans,” said Antonio Nankoudis. He then pointed to the U.S. mission, saying, “And there are the assassins.”

Memo to Mr. Nankoudis. The Iraqis in the pictures aren’t dead, which is what they would be if the Americans in the photos were assassins. If you’re going to sling mud, at least get your terms straight, you bleeding great idiot.

Oh and while you’re there in Cuba, why don’t you pop over to Castro’s place and ask to see if you can visit those 75 dissidents. You know, just for torture-comparison’s sake, okay? See how long you wait before they let you in.

And here’s another person. A Cuban, even!

Cubans also supported the billboard.

“This is well-placed, so the whole world understands that what’s most important is humanity,” said Evelio Perez, who at first looked startled when he walked past the billboard with his family.

Umm….AP news reporter? You’ve quoted one person here. The sentence you’re looking for is “A passing Cuban man, with his family, supported the billboard”. Did you ask him what might happen if he criticized the billboard right there where your faithful pen and pad of paper could record his identity? I mean, it’s not like his government recently tossed fourscore and fifteen people in a dank, dark jail for criticizing the government or anything. Oh, they did? Then you could probably understand why this poor man gave such a ringing endorsement of his government’s comparison of a country where some soldiers put women’s panties on the head of a terrorist and took some photos to a government that managed to exterminate 3 million human beings and sparked a war that killed tens of millions of other people. Oh, and one more thing. Note that his endorsement isn’t particularly of the “two thumbs up” variety. I mean, come on – “well-placed”? That’s the kind of thing you say when you can’t think of anything else. That’s like looking at a painting and saying, “Well, it certainly has a pretty frame and the gallery put it in a rather nice spot”

Mr. Perez didn’t support the billboard so much as praised his country for managing to point it at the Mission with which they had the problem. “Supported” indeed.

But before we go, let’s hear from Smith again, okay?

Smith, who headed the Havana mission from 1978 to 1982, said the political Christmas decoration was a deliberate provocation, but a benign one.

“Let’s hope that the U.S. Interest Section may realize that two can play at this game and let it go at that,” he said.

Yeah, let’s hope, shall we? After all, we wouldn’t want to criticize poor Fidel Castro. It’s not like he’s run perhaps the most oppressive government in the Western Hemisphere in the last couple of hundred years or anything. By all means, let’s just coddle him. Maybe he’ll release those remaining 61 dissidents before they have some “medical reasons” that force him to release them lest they die in his custody.

(Thanks to Karol for the pointer)

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Category: Our Foreign Policy