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>with a superpower fixated on killing you (and ruining you economy) next door Look at how awful the quality of life in Cuba is today. Look at its people's lack

• rorykoehler 10y ago
  The problem with the US model is it leaves no room for other/different ideas. It is all consuming. Now that it has no competition to keep itself in check it is well on the way to consuming itself.
  • Piskvorrr 10y ago
    No competition? Look again, this is not 1990 any more.
• meric 10y ago
  Like how US saved Haiti and Libya and Iraq, right?
  • mememachine 10y ago
    this is a good point. i dont think you can really call the us good guys here (or cuba, for that matter)
    • blahi 10y ago
      There are no good guys. There are just interest. The US protects its interests. Embargo on oil exports to the US? Fuck up your whole region so bad that this can't happen again. Divide and concur. Communism on its shore? Well, nobody goes on this forsaken place or else... That's how you keep power and that's why you have such a high standard of living. You think it's because you work hard but it's not. At least not primarily.
  • Hondor 10y ago
    More like how it saved South Korea. Saving usually hasn't worked, but that's one clear counterexample.
    • crdoconnor 10y ago
      It didn't try to "save" South Korea from itself it tried to build it up into an industrial bulwark against the Soviet Union.
  • tomjen3 10y ago
    And Germany and Japan. If the U.S. Had a bit of sanity they could have saved Iraq if they were willing to accept that it should have been split into three countries rather than a pointless attempt to create a country that inky existed as part of the British/French carving up the middle East.
  • geezerjay 10y ago
    > Like how US saved Haiti and Libya and Iraq, right? Libya was a NATO intervention that was pushed and led by France, specifically Sarkozy's government.
    • Pica_soO 10y ago
      The tail gave the dog horrible tremors indeed.
    • varjag 10y ago
      It also ended up a lot better than non-intervention in Syria. Although make no mistake, the USA is blamed for both anyway.
      • geezerjay 10y ago
        > It also ended up a lot better than non-intervention in Syria. It ended marginally better because NATO's intervention decisively tipped the scales against Gaddafi's regime. The Syrian civil war has been in a stalemate for years, and only recently has Assad's regime been making inroads due to Russia's decisive and no-holds-barred military intervention.
        • varjag 10y ago
          If by marginally we mean a difference of half million dead and three million seeking refuge, I beg to disagree. And yes Syria is an intangible mess now, probably the same would have been in Lybia if it was left to own civil war for 5 more years.
          • geezerjay 10y ago
            > If by marginally we mean a difference of half million dead and three million seeking refuge, I beg to disagree. Now, factor in the fact that Libya is now a failed state and the refugee crisis is largely caused by human traffickers using Libya as a staging area to send those countless lifeboats packed with countless unwitting victims, a great number of which end up dead in the Mediterranean.
• sysk 10y ago
  I'm with you up until "the US tried to save Cuba from itself". Castro was an awful dictator but the US embargo not only didn't save Cuba from itself, it made things worse for ordinary Cuban citizens. I wouldn't be proud of it.
  • pvaldes 10y ago
    And a lot of people would argue that the most awful part of Cuba today is still the Guantanamo of Bush.
• matt4077 10y ago
  Like I said: Compared to Haiti, or Venezuela, or Panama, or Simbabwe, or Ruanda, they did pretty well. Depending on the point in time over the last 50 years and your position in society, even Mexico (Drug wars, now), Argentina (during the dictatorship), or Brasil (born into the wrong class, today) may not be clearly superior in every regard. I've been to Cuba, and life there is somewhat boring, and the standard of living is obviously low. But it's not the kind of poverty you seen many other countries. No starving old people and children in the streets, also no gang violence ruling your block. Streetlife in general seemed quite happy – old people playing chess, young girls playing soccer (in school uniforms, no less), groups of three or four neighbors fixing one of those old cars etc. Now it sounds too much like glorification – I also listened to 6 hours of Castro's labor day sermon in 2003 and most people around me felt I was insane for attending it voluntarily – they only went because somebody, somewhere had to check their name of a list or they may get into trouble. That's a price I wouldn't be willing to pay. I hope Cuba will find a way to preserve a bit of what made it bearable in its worst times.
  • int_19h 10y ago
    Why not compare to the Dominican Republic, say? That seems like a much closer comparison in so many ways - capitalism under a ruthless dictator, a long history of US intervention etc.
• literallycancer 10y ago
  The US has a long history of sponsoring violent coups. I don't think you get to talk about 'saving' anyone.