Think globally, act locally?

I said this on Friday:

And maintaining that false notion of perpetual American innocence will be the root of yet another Afghanistan, another Iraq, another - Syria, perhaps?

Or something a little closer to home.

Washington (AP, May 2) - A government commission is recommending to President Bush a series of measures to cut U.S. dollar flows to Cuba as part of a broader policy to hasten the end of the country's communist system, an administration official said Sunday night. ...

Until now, the administration's policy has been to hasten a democratic transition in Cuba. The commission report goes a step further in recommending what amounts to regime change.

I love the expression "regime change." It's so unemotive as a phrase, so antiseptic. Not like "overthrowing governments which don't serve our purposes." "Regime change." Almost wholesome. And of course it's something which we're entitled to do whenever we want because after all, we're Americans and we know what's right and what's wrong and what's the matter, don't you believe in freedom?

Actually, Cuba does present an interesting, if you will, intellectual exercise for progressives. On the one hand, Castro is a dictator and there is more than ample reason to be concerned with - amend that, condemn - his record on human and civil rights. Yet at the same time in areas such as public health and education, Cuba surpasses, sometimes by a considerable margin, most developing nations - and it's been quite some time since that could be attributed to the financial backing of the old USSR. Plus, the fact is, while there is an oppressed opposition, by most accounts a clear majority of Cubans endorse Castro's rule. (Although for the sake of accuracy it has to be said that some attribute that to a siege mentality generated by unremitting US hostility, a rally-'round-the-leader impulse identical to that which saw Bush's approval ratings hit 90% in the wake of 9/11. Indeed, some have argued that the best way to undermine Castro is for the US to stop opposing him, denying him the "distraction" of perpetual external threat.)

Be that as it may, the general consensus about this commission report is that it's designed to solidify Bush's standing with Cuban-Americans, who were key to his phony Florida election "victory" in 2000. One of the proposals is a cut in the legal limit of $1200 a year which Cuban-Americans are allowed to send to friends and family in Cuba. Some wanted to ban the practice, some wanted to maintain it for "humanitarian" reasons; the prediction is the final decision will be somewhere in between. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out when the community the White House is wooing is told they can't send as much to the folks back home as they have gotten used to.