Leave Cuba (and the Rest of Us) Alone

by Jacob G. Hornberger
Apr. 10, 2015

It's really so sad. The longtime conservative obsession with Cuba continues. Conservatives, like U.S. national-security state officials, just can't leave Cuba alone.

The latest manifestation of this psychological phenomenon is reflected in a piece by longtime conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady. In the article, entitled "Obama Rehabilitates the Castro Brothers," O'Grady goes through all sorts of lamentations and machinations over President Obama's "appeasement" of Fidel and Raul Castro.

O'Grady is upset because she says that Obama plans to be submissive to Cuban officials at the upcoming 7th Summit of the Americas. She feels that Cuba shouldn't even have been invited to the meeting because it continues to be run by a dictatorship. O'Grady is also upset that there are also now so many authoritarian regimes in Latin American that are leftist and, even worse, that look to Cuba as their model.

Of course, Venezuela comes to mind. O'Grady points out that Obama's appeasement "has brought new demands." She says that among these "demands" is that Venezuela is planning to demand that Obama revoke his recent decree making Venezuela a threat to U.S. "national security." Apparently a revocation of the decree, which has got to be one of the most ridiculous decrees ever issued by a U.S. president, would be considered by O'Grady to be "appeasement."

In 1964, in an interview with ABC television newscaster Lisa Howard, Cuban communist official Che Guevara stated what he wanted the United States to do with respect to Cuba:

HOWARD: What would you like to see the United States do, as regards Cuba?

GUEVARA: It is very difficult to give a precise answer. It is somewhat unrealistic, as a question. Perhaps the most frank and objective answer would be: Nothing. Nothing in all respects. Nothing for or against us. Just leave us alone.

Interestingly, that's precisely what Eric Garner, the black man who was killed by New York Cops, just said before they killed him: "Just leave me alone!"

The problem, of course, is that the welfare-warfare state, which both conservatives and liberals have foisted upon our nation, can't leave anyone alone. It can't leave Cuba alone. It can't leave Eric Garner alone. It can't leave the Middle East, Afghanistan, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the rest of the world alone. The U.S. welfare-warfare state is an all-powerful nanny that can't leave anyone alone, anywhere in the world. Thanks to both conservatives and liberals, the nanny state forces itself on everything and everybody.

There is one -- and only one -- solution to all this paternalistic meddling and interference: libertarianism. That necessarily means a dismantling, not a reform or downsizing, of every single illegitimate function of government.

A good place to start would be with respect to Cuba. Just lift the embargo and return Guantanamo Bay to the Cubans. No more invasions, assassinations, terrorism and sabotage, regime-change operations, embargoes, sanctions, or support of brutal dictators. No more imperialism. No negotiations and summits are necessary to unilaterally stop aggressing against Cuba.

Not only would that be the best thing that could ever happened to the Cuban people, it would also be the best thing that could ever happen to the American people. It might also finally give conservatives, like Mary Anastasia O'Grady, some peace of mind.

A good second step or, better yet, a simultaneous step would be: Leave the rest of us alone too!
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Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. He has advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the country as well as on Fox News' Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows and he appeared as a regular commentator on Judge Andrew Napolitano's show Freedom Watch. View these interviews at LewRockwell.com and from Full Context. Send him email.