A "New" America?

     Yesterday a "historic" meeting took place in Panama between Raul Castro, the President of Cuba and Barak Obama, the President of the United States.  It was "historic" in more sense than one.  Aside from being the first meeting between a Cuban and a U.S. president in more than half a century, it was "historic" because Raul Castro took the opportunity to criticize and castigate the United States for almost 50 minutes (he was allotted 6 minutes, which he obviously ignored!) while Barak Obama sat by meekly listening to the Cuban lambast and accuse the U.S. of all sorts of wrong doing!  These marathon speeches by both Fidel and Raul Castro are nothing new, and actually criticizing the U.S. for 50 minutes is not such a long time, considering that both he and his brother have given 2 or 3 hour speeches lambasting the U.S. in the past, including at a UN session.  But to do this with the President of the United States sitting right next to him, that was something new and unexpected.
     At the end of his long tirade, Raul Castro turned to Obama and "apologized," saying that he did not blame Obama for all of America's wrong doing, that all the "bad" things were done by his predecessors, that he believed Obama was an "honest" man!  The media, of course, immediately seized upon Raul's "apology" and pointed out how "sincere" and "emotional" he had been!  What a crock!  Castro, no doubt realized that he had gone a bit too far, so he quickly tried to gloss over it with his "apology." It was so obvious, but the media chose to present it as a genuine apology on Castro's part!
     Obama in turn, responded by saying that he did not believe in looking at the past, that he only looked "forward!"  In short, he completely separated himself from America's past, America's history.  He, Barak Obama, was going to establish a "new" United States of America, one that has no ties to its history, to its past.  The President of the United States of America, the most powerful country in the world, sat by meekly while a true "Banana (communist) Republic" leader lambasted America for 50 minutes!  Then the American President says that he doesn't worry about the past (especially since, according to Castro all the bad things were done by Obama's predecessors!), and that he is only concerned about the future!  I don't get it, are we employing some sort of a new clever strategy?.
     I don't know how many Americans who watched this play out on CNN or other networks caught what Obama was saying, but I certainly did!  I have said repeatedly before that one of the biggest mistakes that we seem to make time and again is to ignore history, to not look at what took place before.  We are what our history made us, to ignore our past is to ignore our very existence, our core values!  Yes we made many mistakes in the past, but we are supposed to learn from those mistakes, not ignore them!  It is bad enough that we do seem to ignore our mistakes of the past, but to ignore everything of the past as Obama suggested, is inconceivable.  It is to deny who we are, what we stand for.
     I am not against normalizing relations with Cuba.  But like our dealings with Iran, it should not be a one way street.  So far, all of the advantages go to Cuba.  What have we gotten so far?  Cuba has already benefitted from various restrictions that have been lifted, restrictions that were not part of the sanctions.  It seems like a repeat of the so called "Iran Deal."  We have gotten absolutely nothing in return except to be castigated, chastised, and embarrassed in front of the world audience by Raul Castro for 50 minutes.  To us, and to those of the developed world perhaps it does not have much of a significance.  But to the developing world, particularly in Latin America, it has huge implications.
     In the eyes of the typical disaffected Latin American, the gringo president sat by meekly while the president of a small Latin country criticized and chastised America.  To the average campesino or cholo, Castro might have as well just slapped Obama or spit in his face, that is how they see things, very simplistically!  Of course, many will say that such an interpretation of this event is an overreaction.  No doubt that is how the media as well as many others see it.  But believe me, it is not an overreaction.  I think I know something of the Latin American mentality, and I can assure you that they do not see things the same way as the typical American.
     Some said that Raul Castro was worst than his brother Fidel.  Fidel was more charismatic, more of a politician given to long-winded marathon speeches.  Raul was always the military commander, in fact, before replacing his brother as president of Cuba in 2008, he was the longest sitting Minister of Defense or the head of all military!  Raul is known to be cruel and ruthless.  He was directly responsible with the execution of 700 pro Batista officers as soon as he and Fidel came into power.  Raul was recruited by Soviet KGB in 1953, years before the revolution.  He has kept close ties with the KGB and even spent time in Moscow receiving training.  Why do I mention all this?  Well, once a KGB man, always a KGB man!  Witness Vladimir Putin, he started his career as KGB, and still acts like KGB!  So, if anyone thinks that Raul will change and human rights violations will not take place anymore, think again!
     Cuba has been responsible for all of leftist insurgency movements in Latin America since the 1960s.  They are State Sponsors of Terrorism, a label that they, like Iran, would very much like to have removed.  Cuba is in Latin America what Iran is in the Middle East.  Cuba has also ventured outside Latin America, most notably into Africa, Angola being a good example!  Before the fall of the Soviet Union, they acted as Soviet's proxy in many parts of the world. They have sponsored many, many terror groups, too many to mention all!  Who was in charge of all that before becoming president of the country?  Why, Raul Castro!  Che Guevara was very charismatic and got credit for many of the early insurgency movements in Latin America.  But it was Raul who masterminded and sent Che to launch the insurgencies.  So, "Raul" is not a "politician" as we know it.  He is much more than that, and very, very dangerous!
     But despite all of that, we can normalize relations with Cuba, and after all those years, we should.  Cuba needs normalization of relations with us more than we need it.  However, we shouldn't give up the store for it, and we most certainly shouldn't do it at the expense of our national prestige, having our president sit by while Raul launches a tirade against us.  But then, Obama didn't seem to be too bothered by it all.  Apparently, Barak Obama is determined to create a "new" America, one that has no ties to its past!