ONE MORE LETTER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP

Miami Beach, April 27th 2017

Mr. Donald J. Trump.
President of the United States of America.
The White House

                             Dear President Trump,

                                               Please find bellow an article I just ported on my blog www.decadadeloscincuenta.blogspot.com not only venting my frustration in light of the world's indifference towards Venezuela and its people, but sounding an alert as to our passive foreign policy. The calamities I detail are were not caused by your administration, but you indeed do have the opportunity to put in place a more robust foreign policy in sync with what we are as a nation and what our role should be in the world. This message is particularly valid coming from a proud Republican black Cuban American who refuses to indulge in wishful thinking.

              Respectfully,

Andres Alburquerque Jr.
Message will be divided due to field capacity

VENEZUELA AND OUR SILENCE

If Venezuela were ruled by a right wing dictatorship we would be hearing a lot from the left; marches would have been organized all over the country and the world would utter a high pitched cry of foul; being Maduro the puppet of the Havana Junta: thus, a left wing facilitator, the same persons that want to dismember America from within make no effort to change the course of events in that Latin American nation.

One would think however, that being our great nation the beacon of hope and a sworn enemy of communism and left extremism a sterner warning should have come out from Washington as we watch the graphic images of innocent people getting killed under precise instructions of the Cuban government. Then; as if out of the blue, a group of retirees from our military sends a letter to the Trump administration underscoring how strategically important is for us to have good relations with the  Cuban regime. I had hoped that the capture and sentencing of Ana Belen Montes, the highest ranking Castro spy ever incarcerated (that we know of since the cloak and dagger ways of espionage leave little room for credibility) had once and for all done away with such appeasing talking points; but as the convicted Puerto Rican is about to complete her sentence we still hear the same old same old.

As we all know; only a few insignificant individuals (that includes yours truly) are fool enough to trust the government and send spontaneous missives to presidents, senators and representatives; usually letters are mailed as per request from the addressee; which could lead us to believe that for all the Cuban American victory lapping in the right the Donald will not be as effusive as his predecessor; maybe he won't clumsily try to bear hug Raul Castro, but we are not to expect a distinct departure from Obama's policy. If this chain of conjectures is accurate the White House must be alarmed by the possibility of Maduro's downfall and Cuba's economic debacle.

The worst possible outcome for this administration is the improbable victory of the popular riots in Venezuela, Cuba's remake of the Periodo Especial and Washington as it has happened more often than not; perceived as siding with the wrong crowd and having to clean the mess just the same. In very simple words: the powers that be are not happy with a regime change in Venezuela, not because they like Maduro, but because they fear its catastrophic effect on Cuba. America bets on stability even if it makes us move to the wrong side of history. That principle is one of the pillars of our myopic foreign policy and one of the reasons why we are so unpopular. Kicking the can further down the road, avoiding to take the bull by the horns. Venezuela is on its own; Castro is flagrantly meddling in its internal affairs and America looks the other way.

For decades our government has accepted and at times even aided and abetted injustice in order to secure stability only to achieve neither. A quick look at today's world proves beyond any doubt that America is safe when it applies its overwhelming power. We must remain vigilant so that the industrial military complex won't drag us into useless conflicts, but abandoning the Venezuelan people is shamefully unAmerican.

SNOWDEN, OBAMA AND OLIVER STONE.

   

I would like the reader to think carefully about the above title for this article; none of the names is that of a right winger and yet; when you watch the whole movie a sense of helplessness remains in the viewer. 

What we know about Ed Snowden is what Mr Stone has decided to unveil about the controversial individual. According to Stone, Snowden is the classic case of the usual average right tilted ignorant American who needs the love of a liberal activist to wake up. In Oliver's world one is born a stupid conservative who won't question the power's judgement and drifts farther and farther away from the dark cave as life hits him or her with the real facts.

Contrary to some, I try not to mix professional skills and political views; I believe Stone is a dictator lover and left wing lunatic, but at the same time a fine film maker. His attempt at personalizing Snowden, whether we accept his version of facts or not, is artistically and psychologically plausible. He does a decent job and for the first time I was forced think that after all, the traitor, which Snowden undoubtedly is, may have undergone a process of radicalization in light of the negligence, the immobility and the useless waste that our government performs every year pushing the agenda of the industrial military complex not necessarily to the advantage of we the people.

But we have whistle blowers like James and Joanne Moriarty from Texas  who have seen their bank accounts seized; their earnings garnished and their lives destroyed but to my knowledge have never given their information to the enemy. To me, Snowden is a traitor who belongs in jail as well as the many liars in our government who once and again testify under oath that we are not being surveilled when we now know we all are FISA or no FISA.

What stroke me most about the movie is the naive hope and high expectations Snowden and his girlfriend place on Barrack Obama's election only to realize that the government under his watch kept spying on us; actually, according the Stone's script Snowden discovers at some point that our security agencies surveilled more Americans than Russians. Had the movie been shot by one of Bill O'Reilly's filmmakers that would have seemed normal; but it was the one and only Oliver Stone to claim that nothing changed under the former president. I'm afraid Stone will be disowned by the left or maybe suffer an untimely accident.

And this reasoning leads us to where we are now; and I reiterate once again that if Trump conspired with the Russians in any way he must pay for it. But I also reiterate that to use the power of the American government to spy, request the unmasking and/or leak the names of American citizens is a flagrant violation of our Constitution and our way of life. If the left does not accept the theory of the movie it has to reconcile with how Mr Stone accuses them directly of lying; if they do not, instead, destroy the filmmaker nor hurriedly find lawsuits for sexual harassment against him; then they must accept that as Snowden claims, Clapper lied his butt out when he testified UNDER OATH that Americans were not being surveilled.

In closing, I don't think the problem here is whether Clapper, Comey or any bureaucrat lies (which is already a tragedy in itself) but the political manipulation of it all and the one sided version both parties feed us banking on our short memory and inability to make a simple analysis. 

DANGEROUS INHERITANCES

Yesterday, our Commander in Chief ordered the launching of some fifty Tomahawks to strike two different Syrian airstrips. Some claim the targets were actually two locations where chemical weapons were allegedly stocked. Whilst it would have been very difficult to remain silent in view of the horrific images of small children killed with poisonous gas, the decision raises more questions than answers and allows for multiple angles for interpretation. I'm a Republican, but above all I'm a proud American citizen and I want the best for this country FIRST, and by extension for the rest of the world. I would like the reader to join me as my mind wanders though the maze of motives, reasons, goals, strategies and possible outcomes the complex international scenario shows us. No absolute truth is claimed and no single solution, if any, is invoked.

1- Barrack Obama inherited two wars; to my judgement he made the wrong decision pulling out and most of all emailing the enemy time and coordinates of said pull out (figuratively speaking). His decision to withdraw, especially in such humiliating fashion and low tail dog demeanor emboldened our enemies. But the original sin lies on the Bush administration and its naive (provided there were no other interests) notion of exporting our way of life to peoples with different heritages and historical avatars. It was ignorant and suicidal and it passed on to Mr Obama a very difficult situation.

2- Mr Obama, who is not responsible for the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, did worsen the situation in the region with his clumsy role in the overthrow of Gaddafi (who had already made peace with us and could be used to our advantage) and the consequent dismembering of Libya; his policies handed Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood on a silver platter and had it not been for the traditional expeditiousness and omnipresence of the Egyptian military we would have a Muslim regime with a border with Israel. In an outrageous show if hypocrisy the Obama administration kept its distance from Egyptian strongman El Sissi while he even tried a bear hug on Raul Castro. Our enemy of fifty an odd years was removed from the list of nations that sponsor terrorism as we continued to denounce abuse of human rights in an old ally.

3- Bush responsible to some extent, Obama responsible to some extent. Despite his undeniable shortcomings; harsh demeanor, short fuse and lack of governing experience, Donald J Trump is NOT in any way, shape or form responsible for any of the conflicts he has inherited. But he is the president now; blaming his predecessors could set the record straight but won't straighten up anything.

4- As the situation in Syria deteriorates his relation with Vladimir Putin may become more and more strained. The honey moon (if ever there was one) could be over before we know it and that would make things ever more complicated. 

5- Let us not forget we have another madman breaking one rule after another in North Korea; not even his Chinese partners seem to be able to put a leash on him as he is most likely blackmailing his northern neighbors with millions of unwanted immigrants (the same extortion used by the Havana Junta, only there the two countries are only divided by a river). So El Loco, as half sarcastically half endearingly some Cuban Americans call the president, invites the Chinese president to a state dinner at his mansion in West Palm Beach and I envision him asking to be excused for a second only to reappear five minutes later; his lips u shaped lengthened in that sardonic smile of his and offhandedly dropping an explanatory remark on his guest: "sorry Mr Jinping, I had to go authorize my Navy to bomb the shit out of Assad; excuse me where were we?; oh yes, North Korea. As I was saying Mr President you have to help us with that crazy kid; do you like Dennis Rodman?"

6- I can't help noticing that for now the attack has been limited to two bases where Russians are unlikely to be embedded with their Syrian counterparts. It is my understanding that Russia and other key players were informed before the strike; so what now? . For Putin to change his position in Syria a lot of chess has to be played; so where does this leave us? Have we at least managed to scare the Chinese to a point where they order the Korean kid to go back to his video games and quit bothering the adults? Is the rest of the world convinced our president is bold enough to push the bottom? Or are the bad guys convinced he's just show and no substance?