How the Applause Meter Rates Bush’s Pressure on Cuba

There’s no science to gauge how President Bush’s speech on Cuba will play around the world. However, if a large part of diplomacy is theater, audience reaction seems an appropriate first indicator.

“These are just a few of the examples of the terror and trauma that is Cuba today,” Mr. Bush said after introducing the women. “The socialist paradise is a tropical gulag. The quest for justice that once inspired the Cuban people has now become a grab for power. And as with all totalitarian systems, Cuba’s regime no doubt has other horrors still unknown to the rest of the world.”

“Once revealed,” Mr. Bush added, “they will shock the conscience of humanity.”

Imagine this man, with his own gulag full of political prisoners on the very island he is speaking of, spouting this propaganda with a straight face...it must have been quite a sight.

Mr. Bush demanded that the country try a new way, making a daring pitch to the Cuban military.

“When Cubans rise up to demand their liberty, you’ve got to make a choice,” Mr. Bush said. “Will you defend a disgraced and dying order by using force against your own people? Or will you embrace your people’s desire for change?”

I certainly hope our own military will heed this very wise advice given by the Commander in Chief if faced with the same decision at home.

He reiterated his staunch support for the economic embargo that has been the centerpiece of United States policy on Cuba for more than 40 years. He acknowledged that much of the rest of the world disapproves of it, but encouraged other governments to put aside their differences and work together with him to establish a multibillion-dollar fund to help rebuild Cuba’s badly dilapidated infrastructure once a democratic transition is under way.

“We will know there is a new Cuba when opposition parties have the freedom to organize, assemble and speak with equal access to the airwaves,” he said. “We will know there is a new Cuba when a free and independent press has the power to operate without censors. We will know there is a new Cuba when the government removes its stranglehold on private economic activity. Above all, we will know there is a new Cuba when authorities go to the prisons, walk to the cells where people are being held for their beliefs and set them free.”

I bet the prisoners held for years without charge and tortured in Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and all of those secret CIA gulags around the world would love to see this moronic hypocrite practice what he preaches.