Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Watcher's Council Nominations - Cuba Betrayed Edition



With today's announcement by President Obama that the U.S. will be normalizing relations with Cuba, American foreign policy took a very dark turn. Just at the point when this hideous regime was on the verge of collapse, our president took action that will not promote freedom for the Cuban people, but will throw an economic lifeline to a brutal dictatorship to enable it to stay in power. Disgraceful and shameful beyond words.

Welcome to the Watcher's Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the 'sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.

Council News:


The Council In Action!!

  • Greg at Rhymes With Right was quoted in Breitbart.

  • My latest, Fear And Loathing - Labor And Livni's Hatnua Join Forces is up at the Times of Israel.

  • This week, The Political Commentator, IOwnTheWorldReport.Com and Blazing Cat Fur earned honorable mention status with some great articles.

    You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

    To bring something to my attention, simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address (mandatory, but of course it won't be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out on Wednesday morning

    Simple, no?

    It's a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

    So, let's see what we have for you this week....


    Council Submissions

    Honorable Mentions

    Non-Council Submissions

    Enjoy! And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!And don't forget to tune in Friday for the results!
  • 1 comment:

    B.Poster said...

    "Cuba betrayed." In order to betray Cuba implies that America somehow owes Cuba something which it does not, therefor, it is impossible for America to betray Cuba. As for policies that promote freedom for the Cuban people, this is NOT the job of POTUS or America. The job of POTUS is to promote just American interests. (Just what a "just" interest is likely beyond the scope of this post.) Given our last few attempts at promoting freedom/nation building have not only ended in spectacular failure but they have worn down our military to the point where even basic national defense is problematic at best and have made us more reviled around the world than we already were, you'd think folks would learn something. From listening to talking head pundits, it seems people learn NOTHING!!

    It was my observation in 1993 that if the current policies toward Cuba continued, the Castro government or its chosen successor would still be ruling Cuba after the United States ceased to exist. I've seen nothing in the last 21 plus years that would change that assessment. If the regime really is/was on the verge of "collapse", POTUS may have felt he had no real choice here. A failed state 90 miles or so off of our coasts would lead to problems that are nightmarish to comprehend such as 1.)refugees streaming into the US beyond what we already have further straining our financial abilities, and 2.)further encroachment on our interests by Russia and China as they try and bolster their ally. This only scratches the surface.

    Essentially due to a number of horrific decisions made over the last twenty five years or so which include decisions made by the current POTUS and his team America really has no good options left as far as foreign policy goes. the only ones left are trying to choose between the least bad options and praying and hoping for the best.

    As Senator Marco Rubio eloquently pointed out, the embargo is not effective. As he puts it, it has to many holes. While he argues for a tougher embargo, such is impossible as we have no support it and we cannot enforce such a thing.

    Additionally, if Cuban the government really is on the verge of collapse, normalizing relations with it will not save it. The problem is the economic system. They would need to change it but we cannot make that call for them nor should we attempt to do so. To attempt to do so, only places our own liberty in further danger than it already is.

    Is this a good policy? It might be IF we had a skilled negotiator who staunchly represented the interests of America and its people. So far, at least when dealing with foreign adversaries of the US POTUS and team seem to be unskilled negotiators who seem sympathetic to America's adversaries and critical of America's interests. Not a good combination. As such, if this is a good policy, I question their competence to actually carry it out.