Commandante en Jeffe

The big news this morning is that Fidel Castro, ruler over Cuba for nearly fifty years, is stepping down, turning, it seems, the reigns over to his brother, Raul (who isn't all that much younger than Fidel).

I've always wondered what the deal was with Cuba and the US Embargo that has been in place for nearly as long as Castro has been in power. I've been reading up on it a bit today.

So, first there was a US Arms embargo in place beginning when Castro began a conflict with the Batista government that would ultimately lead to Castro's seizure of power in 1959. At that point, the Cuban government, which had been formally recognized by the US (even though Batista was a US-backed dictator - big surprise there...), expropriated major American land-holdings, leading to the trade embargo. Castro, a Communist, had close ties with the Soviet government, which supplemented the Cuban economy.

Well, at this point, Cuba is now seeing the US as an enemy, despite earlier close relations, and decides to have even closer ties with the Soviet Union. This leads to even wider restrictions (apparently, this is when even Cuban cigars are outlawed and apparently, President Kennedy ordered the purchase of thousands of Cuban cigars before enforcing the even more prohibitive embargo).

The US, now getting really pissed at Castro's cozy ties with the Soviet Union, decides to invade and assassinate Castro. This was the Bay of Pigs invasion, which, as we all know, turned out to be a disaster for the US. This leads to Castro naming Cuba a Socialist Republic and formalizing ties with the Soviets.

Now, one can imagine just how pissed the US was now.

Then came along the Cuban Missile Crisis, a really dark moment in Human history when nuclear war very nearly became a reality. In short, Castro allowed the Soviet Union to place missiles on the islands, nice and close to US soil. So close, in fact, that had the Soviets decided to use them, there was no way they could have missed.

After the resolution of that crisis, the US then imposed travel restrictions to Cuba. The US also froze all Cuban assets in the US.

In short, the US just doesn't like Cuba because it's Communist and because of its earlier communist ties to a now defunct Communist union. That really is the core issue.

So, here's the big question: If that is the case, which it certainly seems to be (sure it started with Cuba expropriating US held land in Cuba, but come on! If the US had backed Batista, who was, after all, the US backed dictator of Cuba, none of this would've happened! It's really amazing how the US always seems to back the wrong dictator - Hussein, Noriega, etc.), then WHY DOESN'T THE US PLACE A TRADE EMBARGO ON CHINA?! I mean, seriously, they are still a Communist country, they are still not on great terms with the US, they treat their citizens like crap, they essentially use slave-labor to manufacture goods, goods for which the US is the biggest customer, and they have taken thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of jobs away from the US because all the huge manufacturing corporations have a carte blanche to trade with China!

Imagine, then, how much stronger the US economy would be here if all the jobs were here instead of in a COMMUNIST COUNTRY!!!

Oh, and lest I forget: US policy is apparently to NOT change its stance toward Cuba because Cuba is NOT a democracy. Again, how does that make it any different from China?