Noam Chomsky: A Quick Interview About Obama And Cuba

Dear Noam,

I haven't seen you comment on this, apologies if you have, I wondered what you think the real reason is behind President Obama's overtures to Cuba?

respectfully

Richard

I’ve discussed it in talks, briefly in postings. The way it was presented by Obama and loyally repeated in the media was of course grotesque. The real reasons, plain enough, are that the US policies of terror and crushing embargo had entirely isolated the US in the hemisphere, and Obama is hoping to repair relations with the rest of the hemisphere by ending the longstanding US veto on Cuban participation in hemispheric affairs, particularly with the current Summit coming up.

Many thanks for your reply.

I hope you don't mind if I ask a follow-up question; where do you think Cuba will be in, say, ten years time?

What do you think the US wants to happen?

Apologies for taking up your time.

yours

Richard

What the US wants to happen hasn’t really changed much since the 1820s: it should be under our rule. The US couldn’t achieve that at the time because of the British deterrent, but as John Quincy Adams explained, the US should just wait, and Cuba will fall into our hands by the laws of “political gravitation,” as an apple falls from a tree: meaning, British power would decline and US power would increase. By 1898, the US was able to intervene directly to prevent Cuba’s liberation from Spain (what’s called in the US “the liberation of Cuba by the US”), turning it into a virtual colony. Within months after liberation in 1959 the US began attacking the island, and that’s being going on since. Whether it will succeed in the next decade is hard to say. Cuba now has the protection of much of Latin America, which has been escaping Washington’s grip.

PS Cruising at Cuba's socialist ice cream cathedral.