Financial Shakeup this weekend

[Wellardmac]

emayer wrote:

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.

Agreed pre-invasion planning was less realistic than Alice in Wonderland. Anyone who tried to be realistic was condemned as being negative or unrealistic.

As for by comment on Cuban healthcare - apologies I should have been more specific. They have access to modern medicine and treatments and it's free. That in my definition made it "better" for the average person. Their access to cutting edge research and research based therapies is inferior. I could quote specific mortality rates, but that's so influenced by lifestyle that it's hardly fair to say that they have lower infant mortality rates, cancer deaths, etc. because some of it is just due to the fact that they're better at preventative medicine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/12/opinion/12kris.html

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/53087/

Here's an article from the Guardian newspaper from 2000 on how the UK was seeking to learn from Cuba's first class (and lower cost healthcare) system.

http://www2.cruzio.com/~yogi/health.htm

and another

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/sep/12/film.health

It's not a secret (outside the US) that Cuba has great healthcare. A little embarrassing?

I'm with you on the way to induce reform in Cuba - free flow of goods and ideas is the fastest way for cultural change. Here's the interesting thing though. The rest of the world has free access to visit Cuba, but most are afraid of the negative cultural impact when Americans are allowed to visit. Cuba has a unique culture and many are fearing that it will be lost when McDonalds, Starbucks, etc have the access to set up shop on every corner. I tend to agree, that will be a sad day.