Only thing to outlast 62 year Castro rule in Cuba? U.S. cruelty to Cuba

Fidel Castro ascended to leadership of Cuba on January 1. 1959. Brother Raul stepped down as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party leadership of the Cuban communist party on April 19, 2021. That ended 62 years, 3 months and 19 days of Castro dominance in Cuba.

But another long term aspect of Cuban history threatens the Castros' incredible record: U.S. sanctions designed to topple the Castro regime shortly after it came to power.

The U.S. embargo of trade with Cuba is half way thru its 61st year since its October 19, 1960 start. But U.S. regime change for the Castro boys began the previous March when Ike, transferred the Cuban problem from State, which does diplomacy, to the CIA, which does violent regime change.

When JFK was elected in November, 1960, Ike informed him of the ‘slam dunk’ plot the CIA hatched to return legitimate U.S. businesses and the Mafia back in control of Cuban resources, the Cuban people be damned. The CIA was on a roll, knocking off Iranian leader Mosaddegh in ’53 and Guatemalan president Arbenz in ’54 for not allowing U.S. exploitation of those 2 uppity nations. Three months into JFK’s abbreviated presidency, the CIA’s slam dunk drowned at the Bay of Pigs, 60 years ago this month.

Our 7 decade effort to punish the Cuban people into dumping the now Castro less communist regime continues. But to fully appreciate U.S. exploitation and cruelty to Cuba, one must go back 123 years to April 21, 1898, when the U.S. launched its illegal war of choice to take over Cuba from Spain which ruled it since acquired for Spain by Columbus in 1492.

Castro’s 1959 sin was not being an authoritarian communist. It was taking away Uncle Sam’s gravy train of economic exploitation. Sixty-two years after Castro assumed power, the U.S. is still at it…punishing the hapless Cuban people for not relinquishing control of their poor but beautiful island home to the Yankee powerhouse.

That must end.

Going wrong way: U.S. surges troops, B-52’s into Afghanistan

Two weeks ago President Biden announced the U.S. would completely withdraw troops from Afghanistan by September 11. That’s the good news.

In so doing, Biden broke his predecessor’s agreement 14 months ago with the Taliban to remove all U.S. troops by May 1, 2021. The Taliban weren’t pleased, saying the delay could trigger renewed attacks on Americans that had been halted for the entire 14 months of the original withdrawal agreement. That’s the bad news.

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To guard against renewed Taliban attacks caused by breaking the agreement, Biden is surging 650 new troops and 2 old B-52 bombers into Afghanistan.

That’s how it goes with America’s insane perpetual wars. We break an agreement to remove our troops on the agreed deadline, then resort to a troop surge to prevent blowback to our duplicity.

To the two certain things in life, death and taxes, we must add a third: U.S. perpetual war.

New Cold War adds Chinese Dragon to Russian Bear

One Cold War in a lifetime was enough. But two may be a bridge too far.

Born shortly before Cold War I began, I spent the first 45 years of life keeping one eye on U.S.-Soviet relations, which on a couple of occasions, came perilously close to nuclear winter. The 1962 Cuban Missile crisis left scars that linger till today.

Then in 1990, a marvelous development: the Soviet Union collapsed. Fourteen of the Soviet republics said ‘adios’ and Russia was reduced to a shell of its former footprint. But the 1,500 nukes it retained ensured it was not to be messed with.

Great. We can draw down our gargantuan military and use the ‘peace dividend’ to create a truly egalitarian, nurtured society.

Alas, the ravenous Military-Industrial Complex needed a new cause celebre. They spent the next 30 years ginning up Islamophobia. It generated the 911 attacks which put U.S. militarism back in the saddle, squandering our treasure getting hundreds of thousands killed for nothing.

But with Islamic terrorism a fading memory, the Complex hatched a brilliant plan. They re-imagined a Russian menace, enticing former Soviet republics to join NATO because Russia was a renewed existential threat to the West.

The current flashpoint for possible war is Ukraine. The U.S. inspired and supported a coup which replaced the pro-Russian Ukraine president with an anti-Russian in 2014. This predictably caused Russian blowback, culminating with seizure of Ukraine Crimea to protect their naval base there. If no coup Crimea would still belong to Ukraine. Seven years later the U.S. is still at it, funneling arms and good cheer to Ukraine extremists in their effort to regain breakaway Russian-settled provinces in the Donbas.

But one bête noir was not enough for America’s military adventurers. They’ve added China to Cold War II. Why? China is on track to overtake the U.S. economy by 2028, something that U.S. exceptionalists say makes them an existential threat. They're using the Taiwan issue as the flashpoint. We’ve largely abrogated the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act requiring the U.S. to recognize One China, transferring diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing, and terminating our mutual defense treaty with Taiwan. We’re trying to entice China’s neighbors to join us in this senseless meddling. So far they have wisely demurred saying ‘You’re on your own, Uncle Sam.’

Cold War II has been a godsend to the Complex. As we draw down from our senseless Middle East wars, the Chinese Dragon and Russian Bear ensure increased military spending for 2021 and beyond.

At 76 I’m not as likely to see the end of Cold War II as I did the original…unless it ends with a bang.

For Trump, the Fat Lady never sings

 For Trump, the Fat Lady never sings

Over 400 citizens of Trump Nation have been arrested on charges related to their insurrection of the Capitol January 6. They took to heart the pleas of their leader, losing re-election candidate Trump, storming the seat of government to overturn the election at his direction.  Hundreds were injured and 5 died. Two Capitol police committed suicide shortly thereafter.

They nearly succeeded. Had congresspersons they hunted been captured, injured, even killed, the certification of Biden’s win may have caused enough chaos for Trump to retain, at least temporarily, the presidency.

Trump’s words and deeds before, during and after insurrection all establish probably cause for charging him with conspiracy to overturn the election. It includes Trump’s recorded call to Georgia election officials to simply change the vote in his favor.

That is possibly the gravest crime a sitting president could commit.  

 

Yet, three months out, Trump continues telling his millions of remaining supporters, indeed the entire nation, he won an election stolen from him, the violence he incited notwithstanding.  

One might surmise the perpetrator of such an existential threat to our polity would keep a low profile regarding his criminality. Not Trump. Apparently, the lure of millions pouring in from his true believers, the drive to retain control of the GOP; indeed, even a return to power, have short circuited any rational, patriotic thinking.

His continued promotion of a fraudulent election has caused federal prosecutors to argue against bail for some rioters based on potential of their being incited by Trump to further violence. It has empowered the GOP to embrace Trump; even submit hundreds of legislative initiatives to suppress the Democratic vote in the 2022 election.

Those of us still concerned about the future of our democracy continue to ponder: Why, 114 days after the worst crime of domestic political treason in our history, Trump has not been arrested?

U.S. should apologize to Iran for Operation AJAX

With U.S. efforts to re-enter the nuclear deal stymied by relentless fearmongering about Iran, it might be useful for the US to officially apologize to Iran for Operation TP-AJAX. That was the joint US-British led coup that deposed Iran's legitimate ruler Dr. Mohammed Mosaddeq in August, 1953.

The Brits conceived the coup in 1952 and presented it to 'Give 'Em Hell' Harry Truman, who told the Brits to go to Hell. A year later newbie Prez Ike greenlighted AJAX to allow Britain to grab back its Iranian oil monopoly nationalized by elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq. For Ike, it was a chance to make his bones as a bonafide anti communist, due to Mosaddeq's unwillingness to crush Iranian communist influence.

Leading this first official CIA coup against a foreign leader who wouldn't do our bidding was TR's grandson Kermit Roosevelt Jr., following a family tradition of senseless and bellicose militarism. Our hand picked successor was Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, son of the first Pahlavi monarch Reza Shah Pahlavi. His reluctance and indecision almost wrecked Uncle Sam's best laid plans. But CIA coup leader Roosevelt, who disobeyed orders to shut it down, had his Iranian operatives, masquerading as commies, shed enough blood to turn the tide against Mosaddeq.

The Shah ruled Iran for another 26 years, with his CIA trained secret police killing many thousands who dared speak out against his tyrannical rule.

The CIA, emboldened by their success, toppled the Guatemalan government a year later and were on a roll till their insane 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco led us down a torturous path of anti Cuba machinations which nearly got us all vaporized a year later over Russian missiles there.

The next time someone chirps Iran is our enemy because of the 1979 hostage crisis, tell them about 1953. And while at it, request they support a US apology to Iran for it as well.

Another kid with a gun; another outcome

A hundred nine years ago a poor, 11 year old kid from a broken home in New Orleans got his hands on a ’38 caliber gun. He fired it into the night air, celebrating New Year’s 1913. A cop arrived. But instead of shooting the kid down, he simply arrested him, as was reported in the New Year’s Day edition of the Daily Picayune.

It was the kid’s second arrest and for the second time he was sent the Colored Waifs Home, a segregated institution for troubled black youth.

But there was a big change in the institution between his first stay in 1910 and his second in 1913. The couple who ran the Home started a band. They gave the kid a bugle.

On May 31, 1913, he made the Daily Picayune again, this time in a better light:

“Little black imps, sixteen of them, yesterday in honor of Federal Decoration Day, each bearing a criminal record, equipped with every wrinkle that goes to make up a brass band, paraded the streets of New Orleans. Marching proudly through the streets with drum and fife, they rendered several selections, patriotic mostly, and were loudly encored from the sidewalks. Those who made up the band were: Louis Armstrong, leader…”

We don’t know what kind of life 13 year old Adam Toledo might have had if his involvement with a firearm ended in arrest instead of a bullet. But unlike that of Louis Armstrong, who continues to thrill worldwide with his timeless music…we never will.

Bi-partisan bill tells government to dump Selective Service System

It’s been 48 years since we’ve drafted men into the military. But Uncle Sam still squanders $25 million yearly to maintain the unused, unneeded, obsolete Selective Service System.

Republicans and Democrats alike have finally joined together to abolish it. Co-sponsored by Republicans Rep. Rodney Davis (IL) and Sen. Rand Paul (KY), and Democrats Rep. Pete DeFazio (OR) and Sen. Ron Wyden (OR), the Selective Service Repeal Act of 2021 (H.R. 2509; S. 1139) calls for:

• Repeal the Military Selective Service Act, in its entirety

• Repeal Presidential authority to order registration for a military draft

• Abolish the Selective Service System, including the data center, national and regional offices, and local draft boards

• Repeal all Federal sanctions for not having registered with the Selective Service System

• Preempt all state sanctions for not having registered with the Selective Service System.

Some, to further equality and inclusiveness, are calling for women to be added to draft registration. That is going the wrong way in fostering a less militaristic society.

But co-sponsor DeFazio put it bluntly:

“No young person, regardless of gender, should be subject to a military draft or be forced to register for a draft in the United States. The military draft registration system is an unnecessary, wasteful bureaucracy which unconstitutionally violates Americans’ civil liberties. We should be abolishing military draft registration altogether, not expanding it,”

Co-Sponsor Paul was more succinct:

“If a war is worth fighting, Congress will vote to declare it and people will volunteer,”

The Selective Service Repeal Act will not end current, senseless military involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, among others. But it recognizes that since perpetual war is never declared by Congress, and conducted without input from the citizenry, draft registration is as obsolete as the horse and buggy.

Fanning weaves powerful tale of leaving war behind

Chicagoan Rory Fanning presented Worth Fighting For: An Army Ranger’s Journey from Eager Soldier to Peace Activist at West Suburban Peace Coalition’s April Education Forum, Tuesday.

Fanning served two deployments in Afghanistan with the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion. But he became one of the first U.S. Army Rangers to resist the Iraq war and the Global War on Terror after realizing upwards of 80% of the Afghans scooped up for imprisonment or worse, killed, were innocents.

Most were labeled followers of Osama bin-Laden by Afghans settling personal disputes or simply to gain the bounty offered by Uncle Sam for anyone who could serve to goose the al-Qaeda body count.

Fanning’s conscience led him to tell the Army he could no longer serve in a cruel, unjust war. The military isolated Fanning while mulling his future, quite possibly the Brig. One of the few who didn’t was former NFL star turned Ranger, Pat Tillman who befriended Fanning as he too harbored thoughts of peace instead of war.

After Tillman was killed, his death circumstances and war beliefs were falsified by the Army to exploit his death for pro war propaganda purposes. Once the truth came out, Fanning was quickly mustered out of the military with no punishment to avoid more unfavorable publicity.

After some time and much thought, Fanning dedicated his life to the cause of peace. He received a grant from the Chicago Teachers Union to speak to impressionable, disadvantaged kids routinely propagandized by Army recruiters to sign up for the glories of military service in a country that offers them virtually no other avenue of success. While many still sign up, after hearing from Fanning, they have a full understanding of the dark side of America’s endless wars.

In 2008-9 Fanning walked across America on behalf of the Pat Tillman Foundation. A member of Veterans for Peace, Fanning has traveled as far as Japan to speak in solidarity with those seeking to abolish nuclear weapons and close U.S. military bases around the world.

The West Suburban Peace Coalition holds its monthly Educational Forums third Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM via Zoom. On May 18, DuPage County attorney Azam Nizamuddin will present ‘The Rise of Right Wing Nationalism”. For the link contact me at zlotow@hotmail.com.

Mr. President: Add Iraq to the U.S. troop withdrawal list

U.S. media is focused on Biden’s proposed end to the Afghan war after 20 years, scheduled to be completed by September 11. Optimism over the withdrawal is somewhat dampened by plans for U.S. to camp out across the border and bomb Afghanistan at will if bad guys emerge. Some withdrawal.

But they have largely ignored the deteriorating situation in Iraq that puts U.S. troops and their Iraqi hosts in peril by our refusal to withdraw them.

The Iraqi Parliament kicked us out in January, 2020, after we assassinated Iranian General Soleimani, four other Iranian officials and five Iraqi military personnel at the Baghdad Airport.

Iraqi Shi’ite groups, possibly aligned with Iran, stepped up attacks on Iraqi military facilities to encourage more effort to eject the hated Yankees.

Last October it got so bad Trump bellowed about closing the U.S. embassy and resort to massive bombing in Iraq and neighboring Syria to stem the violence.

The Biden administration, sees the futility of continued U.S. presence in Iraq. It is cooperating in negotiations for a possible timetable for withdrawal similar to that negotiated by Trump for Afghanistan.

Unlike Trump, who didn’t have the time or the will to accomplish the targeted May 1, 2021 withdrawal date, Biden has both the time and hopefully the will. He needs some of the trillions squandered in 18 years of senseless, criminal war in Iraq to pay for infrastructure, environmental renewal, health care for all; indeed all the benefits denied by endless war.

For Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, an end to the relentless attacks by paramilitaries seeking the U.S. exit is critical to his efforts to keep his government in power.

With luck, perseverance and common sense, Biden will pull a Trump and announce a timetable for leaving Iraq with a deadline not based on ‘conditions on the ground.’ That is merely perpetual war party speak for never ending…our never ending wars.

If up to Duckworth, we'd be forever in Afghanistan.

IL Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Fox News, March 30:

"Well, I don’t believe in artificial timelines. I want our troops to come home, absolutely. But, I want them to come home in a way that we don’t have to send them back three months later, six months later."

Sen. Duckworth promotes perpetual war; always has always will. Absolutely.

Only thing to outlast 62 year Castro rule in Cuba? U.S. cruelty to Cuba

Fidel Castro ascended to leadership of Cuba on January 1. 1959. Brother Raul stepped down as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party leadership of the Cuban communist party on April 19, 2021. That ended 62 years, 3 months and 19 days of Castro dominance in Cuba.

But another long term aspect of Cuban history threatens the Castros' incredible record: U.S. sanctions designed to topple the Castro regime shortly after it came to power.

The U.S. embargo of trade with Cuba is half way thru its 61st year since its October 19, 1960 start. But U.S. regime change for the Castro boys began the previous March when Ike, transferred the Cuban problem from State, which does diplomacy, to the CIA, which does violent regime change.

When JFK was elected in November, 1960, Ike informed him of the ‘slam dunk’ plot the CIA hatched to return legitimate U.S. businesses and the Mafia back in control of Cuban resources, the Cuban people be damned. The CIA was on a roll, knocking off Iranian leader Mosaddegh in ’53 and Guatemalan president Arbenz in ’54 for not allowing U.S. exploitation of those 2 uppity nations. Three months into JFK’s abbreviated presidency, the CIA’s slam dunk drowned at the Bay of Pigs, 60 years ago this month.

Our 7 decade effort to punish the Cuban people into dumping the now Castro less communist regime continues. But to fully appreciate U.S. exploitation and cruelty to Cuba, one must go back 123 years to April 21, 1898, when the U.S. launched its illegal war of choice to take over Cuba from Spain which ruled it since acquired for Spain by Columbus in 1492.

Castro’s 1959 sin was not being an authoritarian communist. It was taking away Uncle Sam’s gravy train of economic exploitation. Sixty-two years after Castro assumed power, the U.S. is still at it…punishing the hapless Cuban people for not relinquishing control of their poor but beautiful island home to the Yankee powerhouse.

That must end.