Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Quote of the Day - May 21, 2008

“Why shouldn't we have the same courage and confidence to talk to our enemies? That's what strong countries do. That's what strong presidents do."
- Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) in response to Senator John McCain's (R-AZ) assertion that Obama's judgement is "reckless" and he lacks the experience to be president for wanting to meet with our enemies.

Read the entire CNN article about their flap here.


plez sez: for the past fifty years, the US has looked with disdain at the small tropical island that sits a mere 90 miles off the coast of florida, cuba. fidel castro has grown old and feeble, while the us has gone through nine presidents, the vietnam war, the cold war with the soviet union, the thaw of relations with china, the reconstruction of europe, landing on the moon, and global warming. yet they continue to sit there off the coast of florida, as benign as the day that the island bubbled up in the caribbean.

all those presidents, all those nuclear weapons, all that high priced intelligence, all those billion dollar warships and stealth fighters, all of our money, and the collapse of the soviet union... and they still sit there without a word from the us! fidel is still drawing breath, long after the assassinations of the Kennedy's and Martin Luther King, Jr. he's still there after the death of anwar sadat in egypt, the overthrow of the shah of iran, the fall of the berlin wall, the war in bosnia, the opening of vietnam, the capture of manuel noriega in panama, the loss of the panama canal, the crack epidemic, the death of benazir butto in pakistan, and the hanging of saddam hussein in iraq. the only world leader who has been in power since fidel castro's unlikely ascension in cuba is the queen of england!

mccain says that Obama is naive for suggesting that we talk with fidel's little brother (raul), since he has taken the reins of the country. plezWorld is thinking, "what harm can it do?" cuba is an island, literally and figuratively. the cuban missle crisis was handled with diplomacy over 45 years ago! what can be gained by NOT speaking with them now? what benefit is derived for the large cuban community in south florida that cannot communicate with their relatives?

mccain (as an extension of george w. bush) represents an old, dysfunctional, and failed foreign policy. mccain would do well to highlight areas where he differs from bush, not reinforce what most americans already assume: a mccain presidency will be a continuation of the bush foreign policy debacle. a foreign policy that brought al qaeda and the suicide bombers to the us on september 11, 2001, the foreign policy that cannot find osama bin laden, and the foreign policy that launched an illegal war against the sovereign state of iraq (i still don't understand why he has not been impeached)!

it's time to have a president with the stones to chart a new path, try new strategies, and change our global image. it is time to have a president with a strength of conviction to do what is right, rather than what has always been done. change is difficult and i expect mistakes will be made. but after eight years of blunders by some of the most experienced washington insiders (cheney, powell, rice, rumsfeld, et. al.), i plan to cast my lot with the new guy: Barack Obama.

3 comments:

Christopher Chambers said...

He (McCain) cranked that comment back quite a bit recently in Essence...yes, Essence. I don't think Barack or even Hillary's been interviewed this year in the black Cosmo...

Constructive Feedback said...

[quote]it's time to have a president with the stones to chart a new path, try new strategies, and change our global image. it is time to have a president with a strength of conviction to do what is right, rather than what has always been done.[/quote]

I pray to God above that you will have the courage to SAY THESE EXACT SAME WORDS TO THE LEADER OF CUBA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I recently watched a video about Cuba's influences in various revolutionary movements in Africa. The first international trip that Nelson Mandela took as President of his nation was to Cuba to thank Castro for his support. Mandela then asked Castro "When will you come to visit me in South Africa?"

At this point I asked myself "Would the average Cuban be ALLOWED to visit South Africa or anywhere else in the world?". Even as they send doctors through out the world to provide medical missionary support - when the commercial planes stop in an intermediate nation - the Cubans are not allowed to deplane for fear of deserting their island paradise.

As usual - you can find voice to ask the evil Americans to CHANGE - what do you ask of the Cubans to change - thus discontinuing the suppression of their own people?

That would be STRENGTH TO DO WHAT'S RIGHT - when you are not looking at things from a perverted viewpoint.

plez... said...

cs,

i guess you'll never know the answer to your questions until a man of strength and vision has the courage to speak with the cuban leadership! there's a good chance that a meeting with raul castro will change nothing.

but if speaking with the soviets and the chinese and the vietnamese and the koreans brought change, why should we not expect the same from cuba?