Financial Shakeup this weekend

[emayer]

Wellardmac wrote:

Good discussion.

Just one interjection - Vietnam is also not a fair comparison to Iraq and supporting the South Vietnamese government was also not a worthy goal. The South Vietnamese government was a puppet regime supported by the US, but not supported by it's citizens. Given the chance the Vietnamese population would have voted for Ho Chi Minh and converted to a communist state. We went into Vietnam because of fears over Chinese expansionism and the equally flawed Domino Theory.

Communism (despite the historical hatred of it by the US) works for some countries and not others. The Vietnamese wanted to be under a Communist regime and we didn't want them to have their own way because we were (and still are) afraid of communism. After all this time I really haven't figured out why the US is so afraid of communism, after-all, it's just another socioeconomic system. There have been many studies that have proclaimed Capitalism to be equally flawed. The only thing I can put it down to is the fear generated in the 50's. It's really is quite quaint to see the fear that the US has over Cuba... it's an attitude that is really outdated and not shared with the rest of the world. It's even more amusing when you consider that Cubans have a significantly better healthcare system than the US. Regardless, I do always wonder why US citizens aren't appalled that anyone on a non-US passport can visit Cuba, but not us. Very strange.

Agreed! Please keep in mind that I'm not directly comparing the indications/ necessity of our involvement in Vietnam or Iraq, merely that if we are to learn anything from a historical persepective, it is that politcs undermines our military objectives and long-term goals. We are seeing this yet again. To think that the Iraqi situation can be resolved in 1 or 2 years is ignorant. I can assure you that no political candidate will achieve any substantial withdrawl of troops in this interval. War never is or ever should be a popular choice. Our discourse as a nation should be to accept the fact that this is a long-term venture, and work towards minimizing the economic impact and threat to our soldiers on the ground.

As for the statement that Cuba's healthcare system is vastly superior to ours: I would hope that your impressions are based on more than Michaael Moore's interpretation of the facts! You may recall that Fidel himself had to bring in surgeons and other ancillary staff from Spain to manage his care. Is their system too good for him? Spend one day in an ED ward anywhere near an International airport and you'll see how people throughout the world magically appear on our doorstep. I don't see them making the trip to Cuba for superior care. Again, one must delve into the statistics further to see that variances in mortality etc. in this country are largely attributable to the heterogeneity of our population, social differences in the use of and access to healthcare, and geography which makes it extremely difficult in many parts of the nation for people to have ready access to these specialized services.

I never understood our relations with Cuba either. If we really wanted to undermine Castro I would think it would make more sense to have the free flow of goods and Americans visiting that country.