Dear President Obama:
Thanks for finally taking a step towards common sense in the United States' approach to foreign relations at the recently concluded Summit of the Americas in Trinidad & Tobago. Having dialogue with those we disagree with is the best way to eventually bridge the gaps between nations. You've realized early on that leaders, such as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, are no longer intimidated by the United States. You've made a start, but it's going to take a lot more. It's going to take time and concrete gestures to overcome the arrogance and fraud perpetrated by the last administration.
You mentioned lately, Mr. President, that the United States had lost it moral compass. More than that, this country has lost its moral soul and moral authority to lead the rest of the world down the right path. We are in no position to lecture the world on human rights and democracy until we show that we truly honor and respect these institutions. Please don't get caught up in the hypocrisy that has been the long-standing center-piece of U.S. foreign policy i.e. not practicing what we are preaching. I'm speaking of your recent comments on Cuba. It's good that you have seen the errors of your predecessors' ways and decided to lift the travel and remittance restrictions for U.S. residents who have relatives in Cuba. This is a start but not enough. You stated that by making this gesture you "hoped the country [Cuba] would move towards embracing democratic values, including freedom of speech and religion, on the path towards launching better relations with the United States." You claim that without Cuba taking these steps, the United States cannot normalize relations. I'm sorry to say this Mr. President, but that is a bunch of hogwash! We currently make no such demands on China, our biggest trading partner and our biggest creditor! Yet China systematically stifles freedom of speech and religion, controls what its citizen can get on the internet, jails political dissidents and has a worse human rights record than Cuba! If the hundreds that were killed by the Chinese Red Army at Tiananmen Square in June of 1989 didn't bring the bile up into your throat, I don't know what else will! Cuba has done nothing comparable to these Chinese atrocities, yet successive Republican and Democratic administrations, including your own, continue to coddle with these Chinese dictators. Why is this, Mr. President? Well, I'll give you the answer. The conscience of America's moral values has been supplanted by corporate greed. American corporations got hooked on the drug of cheap labor in China. As the profits rolled in, our government turned a blind eye to the Chinese dictatorship. The Chinese leaders are just laughing at us and calling us fools! They get all the benefits of American capitalism while keeping their foot on the necks of the Chinese people.
Cuba also suffers from that 48-year-old American embarrassment otherwise known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The United States will never be able to live down the fact that Fidel Castro's rag-tag army was able to defeat the CIA-funded Cuban exiles that tried to overthrow him. Also, successive U.S. governments since that time have allowed themselves to be influenced by the Cuban-exiled right-wingers in Miami's Little Havana. I can understand why Republican administration would kowtow to these people. But Democrats like you? Why? Cuban exiles vote overwhelmingly Republican, so why are you even listening to them? Don't get me wrong. I do believe in democratic governments and freedom of speech, but America's application of these ideals have always been, and still is, inconsistent and hypocritical.
Mr. President, you also have to take a serious look at the Helms-Burton Act, which strengthens the trade embargo and ridiculously subjects the officers of non-U.S. companies to prosecution if they do business with Cuba. Our own allies do not recognize or adhere to the provision of this act. So why keep it in place? You should sign an executive order to waive the provisions of this act since Congress is not likely to repeal it. But how is this for irony? This legislation has the name of one man, Jesse Helms, who supported right-wing Latin-American dictatorships with their death squads, who voted against the Civil Rights Act and the establishment of the Martin Luther King holiday. How could a man with such a record have lectured the rest of the world on equal rights in Cuba? There is something radically wrong with this picture!
Please do not listen to the many haters out there. You came to office on a wave of change, so please stay true to that ideal. Many like me who voted for you with the hope of a fresh, new way of thinking are expecting a lot more than just changing the remittance policy towards Cuba. Don't concern yourself with people like Dick Cheney who are going to disagree with everything you do. Like many in the world, I view him as the epitome of the evil that was perpetrated by the Bush Administration. He is he poster child for all that is wrong with the U.S. and how we are viewed in the world today. You, Mr. President, have the mandate to change this view. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll revealed that 71% of Americans thought that we should re-establish full diplomatic relations with Cuba, and 64% thought that we should lift the travel restrictions for all Americans. The numbers speak for themselves.
Times have changed, Mr. President. We are no longer fighting the Cold War. So stop using Cold War mumbo-jumbo logic to determine how we are going to deal with other countries in this new millennium. But even during the Cold War, we had full diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, as it was assumed that through "constructive engagement" the United States could eventually affect change in that communist system. I guess Cuba doesn't have enough nuclear weapons to make us stand and notice! Given your obvious naivete on these matters I'd be glad to sit down with you at any time to discuss this and any other issue that you may need help resolving. With these tough economic times and so many fires to put out, you need all the help you can get.
Respectfully yours,
Andrew McIntyre
The McIntyre Report
Andrew McIntyre is a contributer to Carib press
Photo courtesy of Summits Of The Americas Information Network
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