On Sun, 13 Apr 2003 15:39:13 -0700 (PDT) andie nachgeborenen
<andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> writes:
> The problem with this debate is that both side sides are tragically
> right. Castro's regime is repressive and corrupt. It has also
> brought untold benefits to the Cubans. The repression and
> autocracies betrays fundamental liberal principles. But there is no
> way, were Castro to respect such principles, that the Cuban
> revolution would not be hijacked by American interests, dismantled,
> and levelled down to the the level of Nicaragua. It's really hard to
> know what to say in the circumstances. I yield to no one in rabid
> civil libertarianism, but can't Castro quote Judge Jackson's remark
> that The Constitution is not a suicide pact? Or to put in another
> way, when the US was under the threat of destruction from secession,
> our greatest President asked whether all thew laws but one should be
> enforced at the cost of bringing low the structure that made
> possible the enforcement of any. jks
Lincoln, it should be noted suspended the right to habeas corpus, something which the plain text of the Constitution only authorized Congress to do. He curtailed freedom of the press, imprisoning newspaper editors who criticized his conduct of the war against the Confederacy. People could and were thrown into prison by the government, often on the merest pretexts.
In many respects, he functioned as an elected dictator, and the US was all the better for it, despite the dangerous precedents that this set. If Castro, were to provide ACLU-level protection of civil liberties, and a provided for multiparty elections, and all the rest of things that the dissidents presumably want, the Cuban Revolution, would quickly go down the drain as Uncle Sam began to flex his financial muscles to force the "post-Communist" government to carry out its bidding. Cuba would only retain a bare modicum of national sovereignty, under the shadow of its collosal neighbor to its north.
Jim F.
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