In the wake of Fidel Castro’s resignation as president of Cuba, President Bush is, not surprisingly, lecturing the Cuban people as to what they now need to do to achieve a free society.
But Cubans — and, for that matter, the American people and the people of the world — would be better served if Bush were to leave the Cuban people alone and instead focus on what the United States needs to do to lead the world to freedom through example, to wit:
1. Immediately lift the decades-long cruel and brutal economic embargo against the Cuban people, thereby freeing Americans and others to freely travel to Cuba and spend money there without fear of criminal and civil prosecution from U.S. authorities.
2. Immediately lift all controls on the free movements of goods and services across U.S. borders, thereby freeing the Cuban people and the people of the world to travel to the United States and trade with the American people without fear of criminal and civil prosecution from U.S. authorities.
3. Immediately grant amnesty to every American who has traveled to Cuba or spent money there in violation of the cruel and brutal U.S. embargo against the Cuban people.
4. Immediately shut down the U.S. government’s torture facility and prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, terminate the Pentagon’s kangaroo military-tribunal system, and restore habeas corpus and due process to people suspected of having committed acts of terrorism.
5. Immediately divest the U.S. government of all ownership or leasehold rights to Guantanamo Bay, especially given that such rights reflect anti-American principles of imperialism and socialism (i.e., U.S. government ownership of Cuban real estate).
6. Immediately dismantle all overseas U.S. bases and posts and bring all U.S. troops stationed overseas home and discharge them into the private sector.
7. Immediately withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq, apologize to the Iraqi people for invading, occupying, and destroying their country and killing and maiming more than a million Iraqi people under fake and false pretenses (e.g., WMDs, democracy-spreading, war on terrorism, Muslim hatred for Christians, Islamo-fascist threat, etc.), followed by a genuine promise never again to wage a war of aggression against another country.
8. Immediately cease interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, including through assassinations, foreign aid, coups, regime change, support of dictators, invasions, and occupations.
9. Immediately cease all kidnappings, renditions, and torture and sex abuse of prisoners and detainees, including, but not limited, to water-boarding.
10. Immediately repeal the USA Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act, end warrantless searches, and restore civil liberties.
11. Immediately repeal all U.S. socialist programs, including those that are the pride and joy of Fidel Castro himself — socialized healthcare (i.e., Medicare and Medicaid), public (i.e., government) schooling, and Social Security.
12. Immediately repeal U.S. drug laws and grant amnesty to all non-violent drug offenders.
13. Immediately cease all federal spending in excess of tax revenues, thereby staunching the continuous destructive debasement of the dollar, and abolish the engine of inflation, the Federal Reserve System.