A Libertarian’s Rant

Fidel April 22, 2009

Today, Cuba’s de-facto leader Fidel Castro somehow thwarted hopes that Obama’s Grand Ouverture towards his country would result into any form of liberalization on his island. So what did Raul say, that could have been so misinterpreted by the American administration ? He mentioned something about being open for talks about everything.

Now talk is cheap, particularly in communist countries, even though Western politicians are quite good at that themselves, and a gifted speaker like Obama is certainly no stranger to taking a mouthful either.

So far, however, Obama’s attempts to gain good standing with friends and foes alike has not brought about any results:

Apologies to Europe brought about a dizzying array of compliments and declarations of sympathy, but no real commitment from the Europeans, who have simply disregarded Obama’s request for more engagement in Afghanistan.

The President’s bow before the King of Saudi-Arabia yet has to yield any measurable results – subservient behaviour like this will be undoubtedly interpreted as a sign of weakness in a culture of machoism that has made human rights violations an integral part of its society.

The continuation of his “Tour d’apologie” in Latin America has provided Hugo Chavez with a welcome opportunity to get his face on the headlines of every single news-outlet on the planet, while he continues to play footsie with the Iranian mad-man Ahmadinedjad.

This trend seems to be continuing with Cuba, and one wonders when the President – who has no executive experience – will come to realize the sharp realities of international politics. If he doesn’t learn his lessons soon, he will take the risk of his presidency being named in the same breath with Jimmy Carter’s.

For those readers who are suspicious of the “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy”, I should mention that even though the below-mentioned article appears on the Fox News website, it is written by the Associated Press (AP).

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/22/fidel-castro-obama-got-overture-wrong/