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writing for godot

Cuba, la Furia Roja, and the City on a Hill

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Written by Jaron Pearlman   
Saturday, 19 April 2014 09:25
When wars are declared two things must happen for the public to endorse it:

One is the enemy must be dehumanized. National supports for war must be supported with the peoples desire to see the enemy destroyed, incarcerated, or assimilated. If it isn’t supported in these ways, war must either be performed covertly- or risk a coup from the civilians or military.

Second the government must declare one entity ultimately good, and the other ultimately bad to make a clear divide. There is no honesty in the official reasons for warfare, as neither faction truly represents the people. The reported reasons for military engagement are often either for protection from the enemy, or humanitarian aid (spreading ‘democracy’).
Though these are potentially half-truths, a much darker reality pervades. National defense and international aid are often only words to cover up the quest for resources, man-power, and economic control. Though perhaps a particular regime may be oppressive to its citizens, there is little likelihood of real international help unless there are benefits for the aiding nations (and their economic interests).

What is integral to note though is the absolute NEED for public support before going into a potentially long-standing war. When a conflict is set to last a long time, there has to be a public reason for huge amounts of national debts acquired (wars always cause deficits) and the continued deployment of troops overseas. The benefactors of most of these colonial-esque conflicts (multinational corporations, defense contractors, private central banks) must create a government-approved reason for fighting, thereby creating a black and white public image out of shades of grey.

Arguably, the United States has been the one of the most effective nations in history as far as blinding its public. Not only have USA reasons for war been questionable at best, but its education system is deeply biased and skewed to glorify the United States status as ‘A City on a Hill’. This metaphor suggests the infallibility of American judgment and morality, despite the implications of its own history.

This begs the question: How far would a government go to convince its citizens to support war? The answer may surprise you.

Though there are literally hundreds of incidents to cite, the story of Cuban independence, Spain, and the USA is an eerily relevant one. Cuba has been demonized to the American public via the Cuban Missile Crisis, the infamous leader Fidel Castro, and its alliance with Soviet Russia. To truly understand though, Cuban history must be addressed.

Caobana was Cuba’s original name. It was the home to an indigenous people (much like the rest of the New World) called the Taino. As with North and South America, the native people were primarily hunter-gatherers; but had intricate and large civilizations often utilizing advanced agriculture and egalitarian societies. It wasn’t until 1492 that Cuba was ‘discovered’ by the Spanish- and in classic colonial fashion colonies were made, diseases and apartheid were spread, and resources were usurped.
For Cuba these exports included exotic foods, sugar, nickel, tobacco, coffee, state sponsored labor, slave trade, and pharmaceutical ingredients. As with the native inhabitants of the Northern and Southern mainlands, a very relative few survived the newly imposed European caste systems and diseases.

Cuba is/was also desirable as a port (specifically Havana) for commerce between the Old and New Worlds. Imports and export businesses on both sides of the Atlantic used Cuba as a gathering place- to stockpile and send products where they could be sold.
This made Spain very lucky in its colonial days- having a literal empire in South America and the top trading city in between the Americas.

As the value of Cuban exports and geography proved itself, Havana became very prone to pirate invasions. In 1555 a French corsair (a pirate for government hire) name Jacques De Sores took Havana for the French but was dispelled quickly by the Spanish. Attacks were frequent and eventually formal state sponsored wars came to Cuba.
The English openly raided Havana three documented times, in 1622, 1623, and 1638. The in 1762 the English formally declared war on the Spanish in Cuba, and acquired Havana for a little less than two years. During that time embargos with the North American British colonies were lifted- and Cuban trade became even more powerful.

Spanish control of Cuba was returned with the signing of the Peace of Paris- ending the Seven Years War between France, England, and Spain. The only condition was that Spain was to trade Florida for English occupied Havana. Not long after, in 1776 the United States was born and the Spanish opened Cuban trade with the thirteen colonies- both a liberating and devastating move for Cuba.

As relations with the USA progressed, the founding fathers took great interest in Cuba- just as the French, English, and Spanish had. Thomas Jefferson even said to his Secretary of War, Mr. John C. Calhoun that Cuba would be ‘ …the most interesting addition to our system of states…” and the USA “…ought at the first possible opportunity, to take Cuba…”. Several bold US political/financial moves were made to attempt the purchase of Cuba from Spain, but to no avail.
The general attitude in Washington was that Spain couldn’t hold Cuba for long at such a distance, and the natural course of Cuban revolution would be to join the United States.

Obviously all this reform of ownership to trade routes/products made a very unstable society, one perched on the verge of revolution as national resources made foreign wallets fat while impoverishing the locals. As with much of the Third World, Cuba was a socio-economic time bomb waiting to throw off the chains of colonial occupation.

The first revolutionary attempt was the Ten Years War, fought by Cuban factions against Spain. This was due to no representation for Cubans in Spanish Parliament or legislation, and an unfair distribution of wealth and taxes. As the island made massive amounts of money from trade and exports, most went to the full blooded Cuba dwelling Spaniards (8% of the population), the Spanish military budget, or was sent to other Spanish colonies. This insurgency never made it to western Cuba or Havana. There was little resulting reform in Cuban socio-economics, though the resulting legislation for peace gave freedom/amnesty to the slaves who had fought against the Spanish.

The next war was called the Little War, and was a continuation of the Ten Years War. Factions that did not sign the peace treaty with the Spanish were exiled, and returned to attempt rebellion once more. This was once again squashed and had little effect on the Spanish rule. Personal firearms were then made illegal, limiting the ability to form nationalist militias. Concentration camps were built en masse to ‘re-educate’ and terminate remaining political dissidents in a disturbingly utter holocaust.
During this time (1868-1880) the United States was using the political uproar to purchase land and plantations from Cuba that had not been accessible before. Suddenly more and more Cuban assets were divided not just among the Spanish, but among private American companies. Both powers were purchasing all the Cuban land, selling all the Cuban resources, and submerging Cubans in debt from tariffs and taxes.

The Cuban people eventually began the Cuban War of Independence fifteen years later (1895-1898). This was directed at Spain (not the USA occupation interestingly enough). The United States had taken the opportunity to sow seeds of discord during all three wars, publicly promoting and displaying anti-Spanish propaganda; once again under the guise of protecting Americans in Cuba, and advocating Cuban rights. The true motives were obvious, with American economic entities already in place the USA would be Spain’s successor of Cuban control.
As Spanish and Cuban forces intensified the United States sent a warship, The USS Maine, to Havana as a show of force- a threat to stay away from USA occupied industries and land. The Maine was meant to sit in the harbor unless instructed otherwise, as the USA had no reported involvement with the war until this point.

Thus the trap was set. The United States couldn’t buy Cuba from Spain- but a war with Spain could yield the results it wanted. Three revolutions in Cuba, and various others in Spaniard occupied Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam had weakened the Spanish economy. A decade of American anti-Spanish propaganda (displaying them all as murderous, slave-owning, gold hoarders) had fueled the public with support.
Helping this mentality was a media industry flush with juicy material- an oppressed people needing American democracy and an 'evil' Spanish empire. Finally, there was now a threat to Americans in Cuba from the Spanish. All the dynamite needed was a flame.

On February 15th 1898 the USS Maine exploded and sank, killing (allegedly) 266 sailors. This was immediately attributed to Spain, and the American people rallied under the mantra ‘Remember the Maine! To Hell with Spain!’.
Republican President William McKinley wanted a proper investigation immediately before going to war- but pressure from American industrialists and the public didn’t allow the necessary time. The United States then began its wars with Spain, ultimately winning not only Cuba (through the Treaty of Paris)- but also Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and vicariously Hawaii.

Though post war investigations were conducted by the United States, France, AND Spain there is still no accepted conclusion as to why the Maine sank. Too much time had passed between the investigation and the sinking to draw any real conclusion. Some ‘radical’ ideas suggest the United States intentionally sank the ship, to provide reason for a Spanish-American War and the acquisition of several Spanish territories. The founding of this ideology is reinforced post-Cuban revolution from American control.

The United States allowed Cuban independence to keep international appearances under the Teller Amendment. However this was supplemented with compliance to the Platt Amendment, where the USA retained rights to ‘supervise/revise’ the Cuban constitution, trading rights, economy, and legislations. In other words, install a puppet government- designed to continue funneling of profits into desired pockets. For the Cubans this was hardly a reprieve from the Spanish. There was no real regard for human rights or treatment of civilians, rather only protective measures for exports and industrialization. As the 20th century progressed, the United States controlled 60% of Cuban sugar exports, and 90% of total Cuban crops- not including US owned mineral deposits and leased farms/land such as Guantanamo Bay. This perpetuated the gigantic profit poaching operation Cuba had been victim to under the Spanish.

This of course led to several MORE attempts at another Cuban revolution- only succeeding after an almost total economic collapse- right before Fidel Castro successfully achieved Cuban sovereignty.
As public and international pressure fell on the USA to stop aiding the falling Cuban puppet-government, the arms sales and sanctioning of their ’western loyalist’ military fell apart, allowing Fidel the chance he needed to gain power. Initially the USA seemed to take this with a grain of salt, allowing Castro to come to Washington and meet Vice President Richard Nixon (wow what a combo, right?) to outline his plan for the new Cuba.

Immediately after this President Dwight Eisenhower began placing trade restrictions between the USA and Cuba. This snowballed into a total embargo- barring all trade between the two countries and freezing assets. Around the same time Russia was developing close ties to Cuba, and helping them regain an economy that had been hijacked for centuries through extending credit (to Russia’s own benefit). Of course this alliance made the USA wary, not just due to military power and geographic placement- but also due to reasons of economic/regional control.

The resulting situation elicited the Bay of Pigs invasion, wherein a group of Cuban, CIA trained mercenaries invaded Cuba and attempted to overthrow the new government and kill Fidel Castro. This was an utter failure and ended in the capture and deportation of most of the foreign combatants. Realizing the weight of the situation, the obviously agitated US Joint Chiefs of Staff let their true colors show.

In the following years there were eight confirmed attempts on Castro’s life (though there were certainly more). As these were continuously foiled, attempts to justify a Cuban invasion became more severe.

Please keep in mind these are confirmed releases of formerly classified files. Unlike the USS Maine incident these are publicly released, approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Kennedy.

The first is a blanket operation called Operation Mongoose, or the ‘Cuban Project’.
The goal of this project was to discredit and dismantle the Cuban government and kill Fidel Castro- whatever the cost. This included state sponsored terrorism on Cuba, aiming to destroy locally owned sugar mills, fossil fuel refineries, and settlements of strategic importance (with and without civilians).
As well as this, the CIA enlisted the help of the Miami Mafia (who wanted their Cuban casinos back) including famed Mafioso John Roselli. Hypodermic needle pens, explosive cigars, and other insane devices were researched and paid for with taxpayer money to assassinate Castro.

But unfortunately that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Housed in the Mongoose program was something called Operation Northwoods. Northwoods was a series of proposals for false flag (self-inflicted) campaigns to fool the public into sanctioning military action against Cuba. Among these tactics to fool the public were:

Hijacking/blowing up (real or fake) planes with possible Americans inside them and blaming Cuba.
Creating terror campaigns in Miami, Washington DC, and the southeast using LIVE ammunition and blaming Cuba.
Sinking boats filled with Cuban refugees and blaming Cuba.
Dressing USA militia as Cubans and have them destroy United States military property (planes, installations, ect).
Blowing up a ship in Guantanamo Bay and blaming Cubans (sound familiar?).
And…flying planes into US occupied buildings in Cuba like Guantanamo Bay.

In the midst of the Cuban missile crisis, Operation Ortsac (Castro backwards) was also considered- a series of strikes to blow up Cuban missile sites. These were risky however, since there was a possibility of blowing up Russian militia and sparking an actual Russian-American war.

The Kennedy Administration didnt allow Operations Mongoose, Northwoods, or Ortsac to occur- dismantling them about one year before John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Their position was one of not wanting to repeat a Bay of Pigs incident, and Kennedy had been developing a different attitude towards approaching USA 'foreign policy'.

These classified files were released in 1997 by the Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board.

One has to ask after reviewing this, what would’ve happened had the presidents administration approved of these treasonous acts? If the most powerful entities in government are willing to use civilians as public opinion pawns, who is to say its been stopped every time someone makes a psychopathic suggestion like Operation Northwoods?
In government, economy clearly takes precedence over people- perhaps that is all the evidence needed to wonder about any ‘official story’.

This is far from an isolated incident. Reasons for war are lied about constantly, and every now and then history reveals a dishonest plot. Even after a nation like Cuba is nationalized there is hardly an improvement for the masses- as outside interests make sure there is either instability, embargo, debt peonage, or some kind of economic assimilation.

The mentality of a ‘City on a Hill’ isn’t just American. It represents blind faith, a perception pushed upon the masses that government is benevolent- and works to better its people and the world. Creating patriotism without critical thought is ‘A City on a Hill’. Be that through intimidation, intentional distraction, or creating national fervor- every nation aims to instill and unrealistic vision of themselves to their people.

Without devising ways to create complexes between nations, races, and people governments lose the power to manipulate socio-economics and wars.

So how far would a government go to secure their own/their financiers assets? Probably a lot farther than you would like to think…
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