this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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[–] BastingChemina 2 points 1 year ago

Wow, this thread is so toxic.

I don't know how to express it but it sound the kid who decided to come to school on a bike that he bought with his own money got a flat tire, then the other kids who came with a big pickup truck paid by their parents are just spitting on him instead of offering some help.

This is my impression of what is happening in this thread right now

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works -3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't get this article, Cuba's only oxygen plant breaks down and it's the US' fault?

Maybe the Cuban president should ensure vital infrastructure can be maintained and holds an inventory of spares?

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cuba-struggles-get-oxygen-sick-vaccines-healthy-2021-08-17/

[–] LetsGOikz@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe the Cuban president should ensure vital infrastructure can be maintained and holds an inventory of spares?

Something that'd be significantly easier to do if it weren't for the US's continued immoral blockade and sanctions? Cuba does not have the resources to maintain the plant purely on their own, and they can't hit a magic button that will suddenly let them find an abundance of spare tools and equipment to repair their infrastructure in a disaster scenario without wider access to international trade.

[–] MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca -4 points 1 year ago

They are in trade with China. They can import what ever the hell they want. They did not import the components for the plant out of incompetence and are producing propaganda to deflect blame.

[–] BunkerBusterKeaton@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

glad to see we have the history understander here!

"hmm blockaded country that can't import food/crops can't feed their people. maybe they should simply grow crops and feed their people"

The embargo does not block food and medicine goods to Cuba from the United States, and other countries besides the US trade with Cuba (notably, China). But apart from that, great point.

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

As per the Reuters article I linked, Russia is their preferred trade partner and sent oxygen. Perhaps they should choose trade partners more carefully if they insist on relying on US components.

I'd guess they'd get a lot more help if they held free and fair elections

[–] BunkerBusterKeaton@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’d guess they’d get a lot more help if they held free and fair elections

Yes because THAT'S what the US cares about. Like supporting 'free and fair elections' by overthrowing democratically elected governments in Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Bolivia, Iran, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Nicaragua...

In each case they installed (or tried to install) a puppet dictator they could control. But no, please go on about how Cuba are actually THE BADDIES here.

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Afghanistan? Lol, the Taliban?

Nice whataboutism though.

It's still more likely that the US would help Cuba if they introduced democracy

[–] BunkerBusterKeaton@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh damn dawg, I guess you haven't heard of the PDP before. All good, I gotchu

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2008/12/02/afghanistan-another-untold-story

Since feudal times the landholding system in Afghanistan had remained unchanged, with more than 75 percent of the land owned by big landlords who comprised only 3 percent of the rural population. In the mid-1960s, democratic revolutionary elements coalesced to form the People's Democratic Party (PDP). In 1973, the king was deposed, but the government that replaced him proved to be autocratic, corrupt, and unpopular. It in turn was forced out in 1978 after a massive demonstration in front of the presidential palace, and after the army intervened on the side of the demonstrators.

The military officers who took charge invited the PDP to form a new government under the leadership of Noor Mohammed Taraki, a poet and novelist. This is how a Marxist-led coalition of national democratic forces came into office. "It was a totally indigenous happening. Not even the CIA blamed the USSR for it," writes John Ryan, a retired professor at the University of Winnipeg, who was conducting an agricultural research project in Afghanistan at about that time.

The Taraki government proceeded to legalize labor unions, and set up a minimum wage, a progressive income tax, a literacy campaign, and programs that gave ordinary people greater access to health care, housing, and public sanitation. Fledgling peasant cooperatives were started and price reductions on some key foods were imposed...

Because of its egalitarian and collectivist economic policies the Taraki government also incurred the opposition of the US national security state. Almost immediately after the PDP coalition came to power, the CIA, assisted by Saudi and Pakistani military, launched a large scale intervention into Afghanistan on the side of the ousted feudal lords, reactionary tribal chieftains, mullahs, and opium traffickers.

A top official within the Taraki government was Hafizulla Amin, believed by many to have been recruited by the CIA during the several years he spent in the United States as a student. In September 1979, Amin seized state power in an armed coup. He executed Taraki, halted the reforms, and murdered, jailed, or exiled thousands of Taraki supporters as he moved toward establishing a fundamentalist Islamic state. But within two months, he was overthrown by PDP remnants including elements within the military.

It should be noted that all this happened before the Soviet military intervention. National security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski publicly admitted--months before Soviet troops entered the country--that the Carter administration was providing huge sums to Muslim extremists to subvert the reformist government. Part of that effort involved brutal attacks by the CIA-backed mujahideen against schools and teachers in rural areas.

In late 1979, the seriously besieged PDP government asked Moscow to send a contingent of troops to help ward off the mujahideen (Islamic guerrilla fighters) and foreign mercenaries, all recruited, financed, and well-armed by the CIA. The Soviets already had been sending aid for projects in mining, education, agriculture, and public health. Deploying troops represented a commitment of a more serious and politically dangerous sort. It took repeated requests from Kabul before Moscow agreed to intervene militarily.

TL;DR: An organic, popular left-wing government deposed the king and made some serious reforms that challenged capital. Then -- and stop me if you've heard this one before -- capital interests and social reactionaries allied with the U.S. and its client states to attack said popular left-wing government. This pushed the left-wing government into the USSR's camp (again, stop me if this sounds familiar) and it asked the Soviet Union for more and more help, up to and including military assistance.

Now please log off, read theory, then come back and join the adults

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

For most of its existence, the party was split between the hardline Khalq and moderate Parcham factions, each of which claimed to represent the "true" PDPA

Classic leftists, can always be relied upon to divide and conquer themselves

In its final years, the party gradually moved away from Marxism–Leninism and towards Afghan nationalism

History may not repeat, but socialism sure does rhyme every time

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Democratic_Party_of_Afghanistan

I prefer my sources to be balanced, yours is a touch too far I'm afraid. I'm a lazy daoist, the centre is the path.

https://www.allsides.com/news-source/common-dreams-media-bias

And I don't need to read theory, theory is for the birds. Facts are what matters, and there is precisely one mildly successful communist country, Vietnam.

One.

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