The Audacity and the Fact

I’ve been mulling over a post on the arrogance of those who pontificate on Cuba- people like Peter Coyote and even our esteemed senator- on the basis of information and disinformation they’ve been fed by the regime’s propaganda machine even via some think tank or operating group. It takes a certain amount of arrogance to sample but a small portion of an incredibly complex and nuanced situation and then presume to know more than those who have crafted foreign policy for more than half a decade or who have experienced it first hand and just might have more knowledge of the situation. Ah, the famous American arrogance.

So it was refreshing to stumble across this well-informed, well-reasoned piece on the embargo by Christopher Sabatini at America’s Quarterly. Sabatini points out not only the reprehensible human rights record of Cuba, but also the regime policies which siphon any foreign investment directly into the pockets of its khaki uniforms. I may not agree with his conclusions.... But, wait.... Strike that, since his conclusions are that we should not lift the embargo wholesale, we should not forget human rights…. I’ve got it. We should talk nicer. That’s something I’ve been saying for a while, by the way. We need to be as shamefully disingenuous with them as they are with us and the rest of the world. In the end after all his careful parsing of the situation, Sabatini is stuck on the horns of improving relations and condoning a Stalinist regime. At least he knows what he’s discussing.