Obama Plans Cuba Visit: Hold the Cheers

by Stephen Lendman

Cuba was a longtime exploited American colony until Fidel Castro replaced US-installed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 with governance serving all Cubans equitably, not just its privileged few.

Obama's so-called thaw in bilateral relations is less than meets the eye. America tolerates no sovereign independent states, all targeted for regime regime by one means or other.

Decades of US embargo, hostile relations, hundreds of foiled efforts to assassinate Fidel Castro, and relentless state terror failed to subvert Cuba's revolution.

White House claims about "charting a new course on Cuba" amount to old wine in new bottles.

Obama's so-called thaw conceals continuing dirty business as usual by other means - the end goal the same, strategy and tactics alone changing.

America wages endless wars to oust independent governments. It considers a sovereign one it doesn't control 90 miles from Florida intolerable.

Reports indicate the White House set to announce Obama's intention to visit Cuba in March - the first one since Calvin Coolidge's presidency 88 years ago.

On January 3, 1961, Dwight Eisenhower severed ties. Kennedy's failed Bay of Pigs invasion followed. He refused another.

Relations remained frozen until Obama officials began talks in 2013 on restoring them - cover for Washington wanting control over its former colony reimposed, giving US corporate predators another market to plunder at the expense of ordinary Cubans, why Fidel launched revolutionary change in the first place.

Obama's visit is planned 15 months after announcing initial steps to unfreeze diplomatic relations, around 10 months before his tenure ends.

Neocon Republican presidential aspirants responded as expected. Cuban-American Marco Rubio blasted what he called "an anti-American communist dictatorship."

Ted Cruz's father left Cuba for America in the 1950s. He denounced Obama's planned trip, saying no US president should visit Cuba "as long as the Castros are in power."

"We need a president that stands up to our enemies," he blustered. Maybe he'll order another Bay of Pigs if elected to succeed Obama in November.

Neocons infesting Washington can't tolerate independent governance for all its people equitably - polar opposite US fascist rule, exclusively serving monied interests, a bipartisan criminal class waging endless wars on humanity, threatening world peace.

Obama twice met with President Raul Castro - in April last year during the Summit of the Americas in Panama, later in September on the sidelines of UN General Assembly's annual session in New York.

Both countries reopened embassies - in Washington and Havana. Direct commercial airline flights and mail service were restored (flights resuming by fall).

Embargo, limited US travel and other restrictions remain in place. So does longstanding hostility toward Cuban independence.

Expect little or no change no matter who succeeds Obama next year. 

A Republican or Hillary Clinton may reverse minimalist steps toward normalization - maybe declare war instead.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

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