By Jed Babbin. American
Espectator
What do Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos and the Communist Chinese have
in common? No, the Chicoms are not lawyers, much as they may act like them. The
short answer is that both have helped Fidel Castro return to the world stage as
a big-league bad guy. Last year, when Angelos gratuitously announced he would
refuse to hire defecting Cuban players, Fidel must have laughed. It's enough to
make me wish the Curse of the Bambino on Baltimore (Boston has had it way too
long).
The Chicom issue is much more serious. They are moving their people in and
supplying military equipment to Cuba. They have set up at least two electronic
intelligence stations on the island. Step by step, they're taking over the
Soviets' abandoned role of propping up a Spanish-speaking version of Joe Stalin.
They may be arming Cuba with weapons, including missile-borne biological
weapons, that can easily reach the United States.
As we celebrate our freedom this Independence Day, it's a good time to
reflect on the oppression our Cuban neighbors suffer. Ever since the Bay of Pigs
our presidents have put the what to do about Castro question on the "too
hard" pile and done nothing. It's time to reverse that course and push hard
for Cuban freedom. This month, Dubya gets his chance to act on the Helms-Burton
law, which provides a couple of big hammers to swing at Castro's head.
Thanks to tourist money pouring in from Europe and Asia, Cuba is making a
strong recovery from the financial shock of losing all that Soviet money. Drug
and tourist money is fueling Castro's reentry into the ranks of the big time bad
guys.
He's working with FARC, the bloody-handed narco-terrorists who now rule a
huge chunk of Colombia. He's in the drug business, and making a tidy profit at
it. Like more and more of our enemies, he is using drugs as a weapon against us.
Castro is an enemy of the United States. Because of him, Cuba is an outlaw
nation, an exporter of terrorism. It's on the State Department terrorist list
ranking behind others like Iran and Iraq, which are more prolific exporters of
violence only because they have more money to work with.
Taking on Fidel is the right thing for Dubya to do. More than that, it's
good politics both here and abroad.
Politics has always been rough on the Cuban-American community. Congress
finds them an embarrassment for speaking out when Fidel's appeasers take the
field. The media are always picking on them because they are not a normal "deprived"
minority. They came here, like so many immigrants, without a pot to pee in or a
window to throw it out of. But, on the whole, they have succeeded.
Media abuse of Cuban Americans in Miami fueled one of Janet Reno's two big
triumphs. I'll never forget Elian Gonzalez. The picture of General Reno's
assault troop reaching over his MP-5 to grab the screaming kid out of the arms
of a friend made me ashamed of my government as I had never been before. Never
mind that the guy had his trigger finger safely outside the trigger guard. His
hand is reaching for the screaming child, and the subgun is pointed just to the
side of the kid's gut.
Now Janet, Warrior Princess of Waco, may run for Florida governor. I can
just see the editorial cartoon, her face in place of that trooper's. There's
already a bumper sticker that says, "Janet: She'll get the kids out of your
house." But that comes later. Helms-Burton is something to deal with now.
Many of us cigar-smoking old guys have not-too-seriously called for an end
to JFK's Cuban trade embargo because, we thought, it accomplishes nothing more
than depriving us of the best cigars in the world. We have been wrong for two
fundamental reasons.
The first one is pretty simple. Once you've tasted the new Paul Garmirian
Special Reserve cigars, you will no longer yearn for the Montecristos or Romeo y
Julietas you've been smoking on your occasional overseas jaunts. The PG's are as
good or better than anything coming out of Cuba. Take that, Fidel.
The other reason is also simple, and a whole lot more serious. It's easy to
forget that Cuba is still Castro's police state built on the old Stalinist
model, complete with its own mini-Gulag. Everyone who hasn't yet should read
Against All Hope by Armando Valladares. Yeah, that means you, Marine, and you
too, fly guy. It's an autobiographical account of twenty-two years as a
political prisoner in Castro's Gulag. His only crimes were speaking against
Communism and in favor of his religion. His memoir of the Isla de Pinos prison
is The Gulag Archipelago with hotter weather.
I'm fortunate to count among my friends Dr. Jose Sorzano (former Deputy U.N.
Ambassador serving with Jeane Kirkpatrick). On Cuba, Jose is the RSG I turn to.
Jose's picture of life in Cuba is compelling. If you're a tourist in Cuba,
you can stay in swank hotels, and eat the finest foods. It's a Potemkin village
with good food and better service. Naturally, ordinary Cubans are not permitted
into the tourist hotels.
If you're a Cuban in Cuba, you live in the "no hay, no te toca"
economy. "No hay." We don't have it. As in no meat, no milk for the
kids. "No te toca." As in, it's not your turn. Come back later, or
take the hint and don't come back at all. The disparity between what tourists
have and what Cubans can't get is not lost on the average Cuban even though it
may be to hard for the media to understand.
There are a lot of tough things we can do about Fidel short of telling the
Marines at Gitmo to, "go west, young men." Dubya can hit the "on"
button for parts of the Helms-Burton law. Under Helms-Burton, we can penalize
the many foreign companies who use American property stolen by the Castro regime
to do business in Cuba. Spanish hotel chains run hotels that used to wear
American names like Hilton. American-owned factories and farms now sport signs
with other familiar European and Japanese brands on them.
Helms-Burton can -- and should -- be used to restrict those companies from
doing business in America. One part of it is within the president's reach this
month: Dubya faces the choice of renewing, or letting expire the presidential
ban on private lawsuits in American courts by those whose stolen property is
being used by these companies. When L'il Billy signed Helms-Burton into law, he
also suspended it. As usual, he wanted to fake doing something to take credit,
and not actually do something to offend one of our enemies.
Now it's time to end the suspension. Turn the federal courts loose on
Castro. I'd love to see the pricey legal talent now chasing the tobacco industry
turn its energies against Fidel.
While we're at it we should indict Fidel for murder. Remember the shoot down
of the civilian plane near Cuba a few years ago? The fliers were trying to spot
people fleeing Cuba in small boats in order to send rescue ships their way. The
fighters who shot them down were reportedly acting on direct orders from Castro
himself. Sounds like Murder 1 to me. Why not ask the "International Court
of Justice" to indict him like Milosevic has been? Book him, Dan-o.
What's more, we have to maintain the embargo. I'm no fan of trade sanctions.
They normally don't do anything more than inconvenience American consumers. But
this one clearly keeps big money out of the hands of the bad guys.
Castro has been trying to get Cuba back into the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank simply to get the financial aid that stopped when the Evil
Empire went tango uniform. American influence in these organizations has
prevented Castro from getting that help. There is no reason to ease up now.
Nothing President Bush does to keep up the pressure on Castro will be
supported by the media, the U.N., or the liberals who make a hobby out of
cozying up to obsolete commies like Fidel. If Dubya does the right thing, he's
in for some whipping by the press.
Jose Sorzano dismisses media criticism of anti-Castro policies. He's fond of
reminding me of Cervantes's words. "Ladran señal de que cavalgamos."
The dogs bark because we gallop. Exactly.
Jed Babbin is a former deputy undersecretary of defense and author of
the new novel, Legacy of Valor. | 
