Tinker, Tailor, an American for three Cuban spies
OPINION The exchange of three Cuban spies jailed for 16 years in the U.S. for an American prisoner in Cuba who was doing some stealth…
Cuban youth reportedly numbering in the thousands march holding the Cuban flag to demand the release of the three remaining Cuban spies imprisoned in the U.S. on September 30, 2014. The New York Times is recommending a prisoner swap for Alan Gross. (Photo by Sven Creutzmann/Mambo photo/Getty Images)
OPINION
The exchange of three Cuban spies jailed for 16 years in the U.S. for an American prisoner in Cuba who was doing some stealth work of his own on the communist island.
It sounds like something that used to take place along the Berlin Wall during the Cold War, or the opening scene of a new James Bond thriller.
SEE ALSO: USAID is implicated in another Cuba scandal
But this is modern day Cuba, though still in 1960’S mode, wanting to be Mexico or what economically booming Banana Republics are today–more than half a century after the Fidel Castro-led revolution.
Unfortunately, our side is also the America that still has many citizens and elected officials not far past the Joseph McCarthy-House UnAmerican Activities Committee witch hunt, fearing that some communist conspiracy lurks behind any philosophy it doesnt understand or agree with.
So diplomacy with a neighbor only 90 miles off the Florida shores is conducted with what seems like a mindset of half a century ago, as if the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs Invasion had occurred more recently than the national tragedy of 9/11.
The New York Times proposes a prisoner exchange
On Monday, “The New York Times“ proposed this aforementioned prisoner exchange.
The American who has been held in Cuba for almost five years is named Alan Gross, a government subcontractor involved in a USAID secretive program to expand Internet access on the island.
Supporters hold signs to call on bringing home of U.S. citizen Alan Gross who is currently being held in a Cuban prison. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The Cuban spies include two men who will be released soon and a third — Gerardo Hernández — who is serving two life sentences after infiltrating Cuban exile groups in South Florida and being convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for helping the Castro government shoot down the exile group Brothers to the Rescue’s civilian planes that dropping leaflets over Cuba that urged revolution.
Alan Gross, who is reportedly in bad health, should be brought home to die a spys romantic death. The Cubans should be sent home, too. Their 16-year-long incarcerations in federal prison have likely already cost the U.S. an estimated $4.8 million to house them, guard them, feed them and care for them with little in return.
A naive editorial board?
Of course, leave it to The New York Times to warn that if Gross isnt brought home and dies in a Cuban jail, the prospect of establishing a healthier relationship with Cuba would be set back for years.
Oh, please. Youre The New York Times. Dont go romantic and stupid on us.
Richard Nixon, the most rabid anti-communist who served as president of the U.S., normalized relations with the People’s Republic of China, visiting that country and ending 25 years of separation between the two sides.
Ronald Reagan, another Republican president who used to warn about communists, helped to bring down the Berlin Wall, the very symbol of the Cold War.
Normalized relations today between the U.S. and Cuba would be welcomed on both sides, and The New York Times would serve a better purpose in continuing to champion the ending of our embargo with Congress, as it has in recent stories, without the unnecessary compassion for spies or soldiers of fortune, American or Cuban.
Leave that to John le Carré, who can do it much better.
And write about Cuba for what it is a modern-day gold mine that could give a dramatic boost to the U.S. economy and American businesses, to whom it would be worth billions of dollars annually in trade that is currently going to other nations.
Cuba as a trade partner
As it is, Americans are already using loopholes to do business with Cuba.
In 2009 President Obama eased travel restrictions and remittances for Cuban-Americans, allowing them to invest in small private businesses, and U.S. citizens can now legally travel to Cuba as long as they meet certain criteria.
Embargo aside, the U.S. is also the largest exporter of food and agricultural products to Cuba, responsible for about 30 percent of Cubas food imports to feed a country of 11.2 million.
That all got a kickstart from the 2000 Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act, permitting hundreds of Americans to travel to Cuba every year to sell agricultural goods.
Since trade began in 2001, Cuba has bought over $3.5 billion in agricultural products from the U.S., and thats even though Cubans must pay cash up front on these transactions.
SEE ALSO: Sen. Menendez seeks probe of Cuban plot to smear his name
It would all seem like a no-brainer unless you are part of the anti-communist brigade hiding in Congress or a member of Cuban exile groups, who perhaps should wise up and, as Southerners, join one of the die-hard Old Dixie organizations in the South who are just as intent on seeing the Confederacy rise once again.
There is also St. Jude, the saint of hopeless cases.
