What would you tell her?

[seminole97]

Last Friday I went out to lunch with two of my staff. One of them is a Cuban emigre, and now a naturalized citizen. She asked me why, given all the places the US invaded, haven’t they invaded Cuba.

How would you have explained it?

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Then what?

 

[alaskanseminole]

How would you have explained it?

"The cigars are good, but they're not that good."

 

[QChawks]

rules

 

[Scott559]

Last Friday I went out to lunch with two of my staff. One of them is a Cuban emigre, and now a naturalized citizen. She asked me why, given all the places the US invaded, haven’t they invaded Cuba.

How would you have explained it?

Teddy’s Roughriders.

 

[mnole03]

We did.

 

[TJ8869]

Remember the Maine!

 

[noStemsnoSTICKS]

1. We don't typically invade unless we're provoked.
2. We don't want a war with Russia.

 

[Torg]

Too much pain for so little gain?

No oil there.

 

[IACub]

We came. We saw. We grounded our boats on coral reefs at low tide.

 

[JMNSHO]

If Cuba was a vacuum cleaner, what brand would it be?

Also, we did invade Cuba. It went poorly.

 

[MichaelKeller99]

On a similar note, how are we supposed to believe that a couple hundred soldiers of the Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City and the Swiss Guard are supposed to to protect the Vatican from one of Catholicism’s greatest enemies, Islam, when there are 50 million of them in Europe (with 2.5 million in Italy alone).

Something fishy about all those secrets the pope is hiding under the Vatican.

 

[DutchyFunStar]

Was the question more along the lines of why didn't you defend democracy against communism like you did in Korea and Vietnam or more about American expansionism?

 

[seminole97]

Was the question more along the lines of why didn't you defend democracy against communism like you did in Korea and Vietnam or more about American expansionism?

She was out today, but I’ll ask tomorrow.
In the context of her ask, she referenced our other ‘regime change’ invasions.

My explanation was that we did invade, as the Spanish American war inaugurated our 'manifest destiny' seeking new shores.
When we invaded via proxy to oust Castro it went sideways quick, and the Soviets agreed to guarantee Cuba's sovereignty with their nuclear umbrella. I told her we agreed to remove our nukes from Turkey and never invade Cuba if the Soviets would remove their strategic bombers and nuclear missiles from Cuba.

I'll ask tomorrow how Castro's government taught Cuban independence from Spain and Bay of Pigs/Cuban missile crisis.

 

[FAUlty Gator]

We liberated Cuba once from Spain. If we liberate them from themselves then we would end up adopting them. No thanks.

 

[BubsFinn]

1. We don't typically invade unless we're provoked.
2. We don't want a war with Russia.

This sounds about right. Besides, Cuba does have a little oil, but not enough to get into that hornet's nest. Sure, they have some minerals like cobalt and nickel, but we can get those elsewhere and not piss off a nuclear power.