Advance notice of Steve Clemon's discussion of Cuba.

I really just found Steve Clemon's teaser about what he is going to write about really fascinating, so I wanted to share his teaser.

I need to tell what I learned about Cuba's current political climate, the impact of America's embargo and travel ban, the lives of normal folks I met, and the business activity I saw beginning to hit a higher pitch. I have some thoughts on Hugo Chavez and Hemingway, on Martin Luther King's followers in Havana and how America is screwing over some very good social work, and how Fidel's master plan of forsaking military exports in favor of shipping out doctors to nations in need around the world was a stroke of genius that has outmaneuvered America's over-militarized response to most problems.

Both former State Department Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson and I went to Cuba legally -- under the license provisions that allow researchers to travel there -- and even had my passport officially stamped, which I understand many do not do.[PPS Editor - underlining is mine.]

This should be really interesting.

I really like the focus on castro's export of Doctors rather than soldiers. Anyone remember the US Peace Corps? Same idea. What are the two largest problems of poor nations around the world? Health, hunger and education. If the members of the Cuban diapora had started sending out Doctors to South and Latin America instead of trying to invade Cuba, Castro would have lost power years ago. Instead, American right-wingers and Cuban refugees attempted to regain power by invading Cuba - and lost.

But they had to use military methods and the embargo because the Cubans wanted to regain their wealth and high status in Cuba, something the Cuban Refugees could not do unless the Castro Revolution were totally erased from the Island. Since the Cuban Revolution was a reaction to the Fulgencio Batista authoritarian government, Cubans are not going to go back.

[Please note: I in no way support the authoritarian government of Castro's Cuba. My point is that our use of force and the military was totally ineffective in changing the authoritarian Communist direction it took. The embargo clearly extended Castros rule long after it would have collapsed without the American pressure.]