By Daniel Nardini
The Cuban electric grid has largely collapsed. U.S. President Donald Trump has put a virtual oil blockade on Cuba, and threatens any and all other nations that supply Cuba with oil and natural gas with stiff tariffs (since the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down Trump’s tariff, I do not know how he will do this). The Cuban government has been working to restore power in parts of the country. This has met with limited success. The real problem has been the Trump administration cutting off all oil imports. This year so far there have been only two ships that have delivered oil to Cuba. These two ships have come from Mexico and Jamaica. Otherwise, all oil shipments have been cut off by the United States. In this regards, Cuba has been effectively blockaded. There is no doubt as to why. Trump and his government want to either cause regime change or change the Cuban government enough to play by Trump’s rules. While many Cubans would like to see a change from what the Communist Party of Cuba is doing, it could all backfire on Trump and the United States.
This is happening in regards to the Iran War and with regards to American strategy. If the United States only had to deal with Cuba, I suspect Trump would ultimately win. But now Trump has over-extended himself in a whole lot of directions. The Iran War is only one case of this over-extension. What Trump has to understand, but obviously he does not care, is that the Communist Party of Cuba has survived decades of other U.S. presidents who tried in one form or another tried to get rid of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Cuban leadership. Yet despite everything from assassinations to covert CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) activities against Cuba, and even outright terrorism (helping right wing Cuban exiles blow up an Air Cubanas plane), the current Cuban government has not fallen. And the crazy thing is that despite U.S. government efforts in the past to undermine the Cuban government by encouraging the Cuban people to rise up and overthrow the government, the opposite case has happened where the majority of people began to support the government in staying in power. Why is that? Well, history is the key. When the United States tried to rule Cuba from 1900 to 1958, this is where the Cuban people pushed back.
In the case of Iran, Trump completely under-estimated the religious fanaticism of the leadership AND the people. In the case of the Cuban people, it is the age old force of nationalism. Trump is trying to fight history, and in my view he will fail. Trump wants to put in a right wing Cuban regime that will do as he says. With the survivability of the Cuban government, they are not going to just give up. They know they will be dead if they do. But in the end, the Cuban people will suffer and instead of giving up or actively revolt against the Cuban government they may rally to its support (we are seeing this happen right now in Iran). In the end, the only real successful outcome of any regime change anywhere has been from within than from an external force from without. A foreign government might encourage regime change, but in my view that is about as far as it can go. I can only hope that Trump will not put U.S. troops on the ground in Iran or in Cuba. This much I can sadly say; the United States (with the exception of Israel) is now truly alone in any fight it may have with its enemies.
Cuba Blockade
By Daniel Nardini
This is happening in regards to the Iran War and with regards to American strategy. If the United States only had to deal with Cuba, I suspect Trump would ultimately win. But now Trump has over-extended himself in a whole lot of directions. The Iran War is only one case of this over-extension. What Trump has to understand, but obviously he does not care, is that the Communist Party of Cuba has survived decades of other U.S. presidents who tried in one form or another tried to get rid of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Cuban leadership. Yet despite everything from assassinations to covert CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) activities against Cuba, and even outright terrorism (helping right wing Cuban exiles blow up an Air Cubanas plane), the current Cuban government has not fallen. And the crazy thing is that despite U.S. government efforts in the past to undermine the Cuban government by encouraging the Cuban people to rise up and overthrow the government, the opposite case has happened where the majority of people began to support the government in staying in power. Why is that? Well, history is the key. When the United States tried to rule Cuba from 1900 to 1958, this is where the Cuban people pushed back.
In the case of Iran, Trump completely under-estimated the religious fanaticism of the leadership AND the people. In the case of the Cuban people, it is the age old force of nationalism. Trump is trying to fight history, and in my view he will fail. Trump wants to put in a right wing Cuban regime that will do as he says. With the survivability of the Cuban government, they are not going to just give up. They know they will be dead if they do. But in the end, the Cuban people will suffer and instead of giving up or actively revolt against the Cuban government they may rally to its support (we are seeing this happen right now in Iran). In the end, the only real successful outcome of any regime change anywhere has been from within than from an external force from without. A foreign government might encourage regime change, but in my view that is about as far as it can go. I can only hope that Trump will not put U.S. troops on the ground in Iran or in Cuba. This much I can sadly say; the United States (with the exception of Israel) is now truly alone in any fight it may have with its enemies.