Useful Idiot Watch

From yesterday's StarTribune (link)

It's unfortunate that so many of this country's Cuban exiles are more interested in pursuing their political vendettas that they are in seeing a bright future for the Cuban people ("Cubans in Minnesota want a peaceful transition," Aug. 2).

A significant portion of Miami's Cuban exile community consists of individuals whose families were displaced by the Cuban revolution. These families, along with prerevolution dictator Fulgencio Batista, were part of the Cuban elite. This small fraction of the Cuban population owned virtually all of the island's land and possessed most of its wealth, while the majority of Cuban citizens lived in squalor.

Then the revolution came, bringing with it such things as land reform and educational opportunity. Today, Cubans are entitled to a free postsecondary education. Cuba has the highest literacy rate and the lowest infant mortality rate in Latin America. It also provides its citizens with a level of medical care that would be the envy of many in this country.

My hope for the Cuban people is that they alone decide the course of their nation after Castro. My fear is that the U.S. government and corporate America will take it upon themselves to fill the gap -- leaving this beautiful island and its dignified inhabitants as a puppet state ripe for political and economic exploitation.

ROBERT ADAMS, COON RAPIDS

From John Derbyshire in National Review (way back in May 2000) (link)

Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy.