With international pressure rising over Cuba's latest crackdown on dissidents, the country's high court upheld tough sentences against high-profile opponents of President Fidel Castro.
The court upheld the 20-year sentence against prominent dissident journalist Raul Rivero, who was convicted along with 74 other dissidents in April in a major roundup by the only one-party, communist government in the Americas.
There is one Supreme Court in that land, Fidel Castro. Had they not upheld the sentences of these poor people, they would have feared for their own lives. News outlets and governments that treat these theatrical courts legitimately do a grave disrespect to the people who live in this slavery.
Cuba's crackdown and sentencing of the 75 to jail terms between six and 28 years sparked an international outcry from governments, rights groups and even many politicians who in the past had been sympathetic to Castro's more than 40-year rule.
Criticism from abroad continued after Havana then held summary trials, convicted and executed three hijackers of a passenger ferry who tried to flee to the United States.
The European Union earlier this month decided to restrict political and cultural contacts with Cuba after the crackdown.
Yeah yeah. That condemnation isn't going make anyone's life better. Once this is over, Europe will no doubt continue their cozy relationship with Castro. The real condemnation will begin if the United States proposed defeating Castro.
I liken it to the time in Elementary School when my first grade brother came running to me at recess upset that his best friend was being beaten up. Being in the fifth grade, I only had to smack this third grade bully a few times to end his bully days. That kid never went near my brother and his friend again and neither did any other kid. Did that make me a bully or a hero? If all acts are morally neutral, then I am no better than the third grader. Should I have found another third grader to smack this kid. Would that have been a measured response?
I suppose the foreign policy experts would say that I am oversimplifying a difficult and complex world. But they make it complex by removing common sense and strength from their decisions. When you act with resolve like Bush did in Iraq, you get a lot of scorn from the geniuses in the United Nations. But the gains of solving that problem are much greater. Also, other countries have taken notice that their actions will have consequences. The upside is that their old patterns of behavior don’t work, and they have to re-think their world-views. Someone else will have to tell me the downsides.
Why was it okay for us to defeat Hitler, and then sit here and let Castro do many of the same things, ninety miles from our shore?
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