Bush calls Cuba `a tropical gulag'

[seafan]

Oh, don't think for one second he's talking about HIS gulag at Guantánamo.



Bush calls Cuba `a tropical gulag'

BY FRANCES ROBLES AND PABLO BACHELET
October 25, 2007

WASHINGTON --
The six relatives of Cuban dissidents flanked President Bush in the chandeliered Benjamin Franklin hall at the State Department as he delivered a withering attack on Havana.
He had brought them there, Bush told the audience, to show ``the faces of those who suffer as a result of the human rights abuses on the island some 90 miles from our shore.''

''These are just a few of the examples of the terror and trauma that is Cuba today,'' Bush said. ``The socialist paradise is a tropical gulag.''
The harsh words came as Bush gave what aides called a defining speech for his U.S. position on post-Fidel Castro Cuba -- urging the security forces to let democracy prevail on the island, and scolding other nations for failing to speak out about Cuba and help dissidents there.

.....

Bush promised computers to access the Internet and scholarships for Cuban children and announced the creation of an international fund to assist Cuba. But before any of this can happen, he said, Cuba has to meet several conditions: freedom of speech, association and press, as well as freedom for political parties and multiparty elections.

Many foreign governments also favor those changes but argue that more can be accomplished by engaging Cuba than turning up the pressure on the communist system.
Bush said those nations would have to respond for their actions.
''As with all totalitarian systems, Cuba's regime no doubt has other horrors still unknown to the rest of the world. Once revealed, they will shock the conscience of humanity,'' he said. ``And they will shame the regime's defenders and all those democracies that have been silent.''

.....

'The operative word in our future dealings with Cuba is not `stability,' '' he said. 'The operative word is `freedom.' ''
To Cuba's armed forces: ''Will you defend a disgraced and dying order by using force against your own people?'' he asked. ``Or will you embrace your people's desire for change? There is a place for you in the free Cuba.''
.....
U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, a Miami Republican who is one of Castro's harshest critics, hailed the pitch to the armed forces.
.....
(Republican Senator Mel) Martinez compared the speech to President Reagan's 1987 memorable ''tear down this wall'' exhortation to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

.....

Havana reacted angrily.

Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque called Bush's plans the ''equivalent to the re-conquest of Cuba by force'' and noted that Bush will be leaving office in early 2009.
''You are packing your bags to go,'' he said. ``You are dangerous. You have power, but you do not have support.''

At a White House news briefing, Press Secretary Dana Perino was asked if Bush was ``obsessed with Cuba.''
``The president is obsessed with human rights -- if that is an accusation that they want to lodge against the president, we'll take it as a compliment.''

.....

Prensa Latina: Bush Obsessed with Cuba Collapse, October 24, 2007

[Swamp Rat]

1. He meant to say Guantanamo

:eyes:

[shadowknows69]

2. Everything that comes out of his mouth is classic projection isn't it?

[seafan]

3. He is criminally insane. That's what is so dangerous.

And when the neocons, such as http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3041829&mesg_id=3041876">Norman Podhoretz are baiting him that he 'is the only one with the guts to bomb Iran', we are at the edge of catastrophe.

[Bitwit1234]

4. You mean bush knows what it means but you think he thinks it 's a new drink

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. I have been to Cuba - it is a mirror image of Miami

You have the tourist areas with resort hotels with lots of western tourists and then you have a whole lot of poor people who work in the tourist areas.