Jay Nordlinger:
Meeting with Raúl Castro, President Obama said, “The history between the United States and Cuba is obviously complicated, and over the years a lot of mistrust has developed.”
I don’t believe there has been mistrust between the U.S. and Cuba. I think that liberals and democrats have disliked dictatorship; and that Communists have disliked liberalism and democracy, and liked dictatorship. That is different from “mistrust.”
Do you see what I mean?
I dislike ISIS, and ISIS dislikes me. It is not a question of mistrust. We have completely different desires for humanity.
Alongside Castro, Obama said, “I think what we have both concluded is that we can disagree in a spirit of respect and civility.” He once more spoke of “this spirit of mutual respect.”
I don’t respect a one-party dictatorship that imprisons, tortures, and murders its political opponents. I don’t see why Obama does. I believe a reporter should ask him, “What is it, exactly, that you respect about the Castro dictatorship?”
Obama repeatedly called Raúl Castro “President Castro.” But Castro is not a president the way Obama is. Obama was democratically elected. Castro is a dictator, plain and simple. Our president should not honor this dictator with the title “president.”
Said Obama, “President Castro earlier today spoke about the significant hardships that the people of Cuba have undergone over many decades.” The significant hardships the Cuban people have undergone have been caused by the Castros — by a totalitarian dictatorship. The dimmest American schoolchild can understand that. But our president cannot?
Generously, Raúl Castro excused Obama from responsibility for the policies of his predecessors, starting with Eisenhower. Obama was grateful for the excusal. He offered no defense of America. “The Cold War has been over for a long time,” he said. “And I’m not interested in having battles frankly that started before I was born.”
I think Obama may make too much of his birth. What matters is, the Castros seized power in 1959, and Cubans are still suffering under their Communist dictatorship. When Juanita Castro defected in 1964, she said, “My brothers Fidel and Raúl have made [Cuba] an enormous prison surrounded by water.”
A question for Obama: Does he think Cubans should be able to live freely and democratically, as he himself always has, or not?
Talking to reporters, Obama said, “We have very different views about how society should be organized.” Well, democrats and Communists have very different views about how society should be organized. But most Americans and most Cubans agree, I’m sure: They want to live in freedom, not under dictatorship.
I have to wonder where Obama’s sympathies lie, principally. Do they lie with the dictatorship or with the democrats and dissidents in prison? He seemed very comfortable with Raúl Castro. (Much more comfortable than he seems with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.) Would he be as comfortable with Oscar Biscet, Juan Carlos González Leiva, or some other dissident?
In 2009, Iranians massed in the streets, to demand a better life. Before they were crushed, they chanted, “Obama, Obama! Either you’re with them [meaning the dictatorship] or you’re with us!” Yes, that is exactly right.
When Obama announced his rapprochement with the Castros in December, I did a round-up of dissident opinion. I quoted that incredibly brave man known as “Antúnez.” (His formal name is Jorge Luis García Pérez.) He said, “This is a betrayal that leaves the democratic opposition defenseless. Obama has allied himself with the oppressors and murderers of our people.”
That pretty much sums it up.