Nasca_James, you bring up a very good point about the appropriate resonse to theft.
Of course the initial theft occurred when Taino-Arawak were wiped out by the Spanish , like all of the original inhabitants of the Carribean Archipelago. As usual they were enslaved, tortured and humiliated first and then all but expunged from the historical record. Compared to Columbus and his masters, the Khmer Rouge were rank amateurs.
Like they always did in the colonies, the European squatters lived off the labours of imported slaves whose blood, sweat and tears made Cuba financially productive for the Spanish gangsters.
But wait, there was a new gang ready to muscle in on the action:
--Source:Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History
By Jane Franklin
Then, with the rise of Batista:
-Source: Research Papers Organized Crime Training Program
Vol. VIII, ca.1971 THE CUBAN CRIME CONFEDERATION By Rafael Aguirre
Castro was just cleaning up the town and giving something back to the slaves who made cuba economically viable. IS stealing back something that was stolen from you in the first place actually theft, Nascar?
And as to the second point, the Blockade/embargo was specifically created to prevent the influx of weapons and only weapons.
"On October 22, in Washington, President Kennedy issued a proclamation on the "interdiction of the delivery of offensive weapons to Cuba," which was transmitted to all U.S. diplomatic missions overseas for immediate presentation to other Governments. After announcing that the U.S. armed forces had been instructed, as from "2 p.m. Greenwich time October 24," to "interdict the delivery of offensive weapons and associated material to Cuba," the proclamation stated:
The following categories of weapons were declared to be prohibited material: "Surface-to-surface missiles; bomber aircraft; bombs, air-to-surface rockets, and guided missiles; warheads for any of the above weapons; mechanical or electronic equipment to support or operate the above items; and any other classes of material hereafter designated by the Secretary of Defence for the purpose of effectuating this proclamation"
Weapons that Castro was only trying to obtain because the Bay of Pigs gave him the crazy idea that the US was trying to invade.
The fact that the blockade has been used to impoverish the whole Cuban populace for more than forty years and protect Jesse Helms' tobacco interests is just another example of US attempts to light the world with the torch of democracy, right Nascar?
Give it up. US foreign policy has rarely even accidentally been about democracy or freedom.
