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The poverty is ubiquitous, said Spear, and affects people, infrastructure, and institutions. Everywhere there are buildings, streets, and plazas in need of repair.
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Show me an inner-city school in our American paradise that doesn't need the same thing.
According to the CIA World Fact book (
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/...k/geos/cu.html), Cuba is quite similar to us in their rate of literacy, their level of infant mortality, as well as their life expectancy at birth.
Furthermore, according to the World Health Organization, compared to the U.S., who according to 1995 numbers averaged 279 physicians per every 100,000 people, Cuba (according to 1998 figures) averaged roughly 530 physicians for every 100,00 people, and that's with a considerably smaller population that that of the U.S.
http://www3.who.int/whosis/health_pe..._personnel.cfm
Look, don't get me wrong, the point wasn't how much better Cuba is than America. I would never agree to such a notion. The argument was based upon Vince's unwillingness to even hold a remotely mature conversation on the POSSIBILITY that Cuba might do some things right.
The article about poverty and stuff there is touching, but statistically speaking, doesn't add up. It's also unfair, b/c as I have already stated, you can go to an unlimited amount of public schools here in America that have the very same problems.
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I think that the Cubans have looked at what is happening in Iraq and have concluded that the United States will not be restrained by international law and international institutions," said Cuba specialist Wayne Smith, who was the top U.S. diplomat in Havana during former President Jimmy Carter's administration.
Carter's administration had some of the worst foreign policies of any president. Castro is using the war as an excuse to clean house. The U.S. will not attack Cuba, Castro is smart enough to realize this and is using his "battle against provocations" as an excuse to murder opponents. No one believes that the current war against terrorism could be applied to Cuba, they don't have oil after all.
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I agree with you fully, and luckily progressive watch dog groups such as Human Rights Watch also agree with you, and continue to exploit this issue.
However, much like India tried to use the war on terror as a justification for a "pre-emptive" strike on Pakistan, Castro is merely playing the game that has been started by the U.S. It wasn't a couple of Cuban "terrorists" with a stolen boat who were responsible for 9/11, anymore than all of these Iraqi "terrorists" who are really Palestinian suicide bombers responsible for 9/11.
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The point in the original radio piece was this "How will leaving Saddam in power promote peace?" It won't. The current statistcis even from left biased groups are what 10.000? WHERE'S MY 500,000? I demand more dead brown skinned babies. This war so far has killed far less than Saddam has in the past or would have in the future.
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According to Human Rights Watch (
http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/04/iraq042703.htm), the amount dead is in fact higher post-war than during the war.
Violence isn't the only problem. OXFAM points out another issue, mainly being the lack of needed supplies in Iraq's over crowded hospitals (
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/news/art5201.html). Luckily we won't want to make the same mistakes we have with Afghanistan, so the U.S. will probably be pumping aid into Iraq (already more money per head going into Iraq than there is right now in Afghanistan).
The war in Iraq is far from over, my friend.
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Whether we can win the peace remains to be seen, but I hardly consider people who promised me 100's of thousands dead as prophetic or even competent.
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I for one never made such promises, and why in God's name would I? If the death totals in this war were -5 I would've been elated, but unfortunately, due to looting, violence, instability attributable to our own incompetence, as well as the pending risk of disease and famine, those numbers may be on the rise.
Also, you're missing a key point. Earlier this year, before the war, Rumsfeld said the U.S. wasn't ruling out the use of WMD on Baghdad. A NUKE ON BAGHDAD!? Could you imagine the outcry???? Why do you think our military was so careful and diligent (sp?)?? Do you think it's because they have a general love and feeling of concern for the enemy? Screw that, it's kill or be killed, right? I for one, as do many others, attribute our nations concern during this war TO the peace movement. So, you shouldn't be chastizing anti-war protestors for not "producing the numbers," rather, you should be thanking us for preventing them.