Left I on the News  

I wrote about the U.S. plan for "assistance" to a "Free Cuba" when reports about the latest version appeared in the press two weeks ago, commenting "Dream on, imperialists." Now that the actual report and its absurd companion "Compact with the Cuban People" (you know, the people the U.S. has been trying to starve to death for the last 45 years) is on the web, let me just refer readers to some other commentary.

Here is an analysis of "Plan Bush" (a name which gives too much credit to George Bush, but anyway...) by the always-compelling Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban National Assembly, which highlights the most important implications of the report.

Here is an article from Granma which notes the illegality and terrorist nature of the fact that the report has a classified appendix, and also notes, among other things:

Implicitly stating the intention to occupy Cuba in one way or another, the authors of the text are seeking personnel. They propose identifying trained Cubans living abroad and other Spanish speakers interested in supporting a possible imperial intervention and encouraging these individuals and groups to keep at the ready.

And finally, closer to home, our friend Whatever It Is, I'm Against It has also been analyzing the report (here and in other posts just below). He notes, among other things, this (my emphasis):

The text of the “Compact with the People of Cuba” is here. It lists the many things the US will do to support a “Cuban transition government,” whatever that might be, including providing emergency food, water, fuel and medical equipment (none of which except perhaps fuel are in short supply in Cuba), helping “rebuild your shattered economy,” and my favorite, “Discourage third parties from intervening to obstruct the will of the Cuban people.” Presumably the third party they have in mind is Venezuela, but.... third party? The unthinking use of that phrase neatly demonstrates the assumption that intervention by the US (the second party) in the affairs of the Cuban people (the first party) is completely natural and legitimate.

For my part, let me just add (for now) one observation. Last night on CNN I was watching Anderson Cooper discussing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and how some people who have now rebuilt their houses have now-dangerous (in the event of a hurricane) FEMA trailers on their lawns, but can't get FEMA to remove them, while other people are still (!!) waiting for FEMA trailers to live in, the better part of a year after the hurricane. And all I could think of was that the U.S. is about to spend $80 million on this absurd and illegal plan to intervene in Cuba, at a time when the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast could make good use of that money. And, extending the irony, that in the extraordinarily unlikely event that the U.S. plan for Cuba were to succeed, the Cuban people, who have suffered only handfuls of fatalities in many previous hurricanes, and pulled off the feat of evacuating more than 10% of its population when Category 5 Hurricane Ivan hit Cuba, without losing a single life, thanks to having a government which actually prioritizes the needs of its people, would, in this "free" world the imperialists dream of, be "free" to be taken care of in the future by the Cuban FEMA. Just one more thing, along with homelessness, poverty, lack of health care, and unemployment, which those "free" Cubans would have to look forward to.

I'm not actually empowered to speak on behalf of Cubans, but I think I do speak for them when I say, "Gracias, pero ningunas gracias, senores imperialistas." Thanks, but no thanks.

U.S. bloody hands off Cuba!

Update: We'll give Hugo Chavez the last word:

Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, told Washington he will maintain his strategic cooperation with Cuba and recommended the US to draw a plan for its own system.

Second update: Former chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba, Wayne Smith, gives his analysis here.