Cuba, Iran, and "State Sponsored Terrorism"
In its final days, the Trump administration is doing everything it can as its pathetic members remain desperate for attention. The worst of them all is Mike Pompeo, who is responsible for the administration’s awful foreign policy towards Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and other countries.
Trump and Pompeo have now decided to classify Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism” - a proclamation that is not only ridiculous, but hypocritical. No country in the world has been a bigger sponsor of terrorism than the USA. The very “terrorists” that they send their own soldiers to the Middle East and Africa to fight are the same people they arm through covert ops to destabilise other countries.
Apart from the typical idea of “terrorists” - we can look at other ways that the US has done things that could only be considered terrorism. We can remember the bombing of Flight 455, and how the US decided to harbour the terrorists who were responsible for that. We can remember how the US supported terrorists to destabilise Afghanistan when it had a progressive Socialist government. The terrorists that they supported in Afghanistan later became the force that is known as al-Qaeda, and it continues to wreak havoc even today.
The US, through various institutions (the military, the CIA, mercenaries) has sent bombs, guns, and drugs around the world to ruin the lives of our peoples. Meanwhile, Cuba sends doctors, teachers, and engineers to give civil assistance to countries when they need extra hands for construction, social services, and emergency response.
We can even cite more recent examples of terrorism, things that happened under the Trump administration specifically. We can remember the recent extremist attacks on democratic institutions in Bolivia, where US-backed white supremacists took control of the government after terrorising indigenous families and communities. Republican lawmakers had longed for the ousting of Evo Morales and MAS, and the Trump administration was quick to recognise the dictatorship that ruled Bolivia illegitimately from November 2019 to October 2020.
The Trump administration has even supported terrorism within US borders. Armed white supremacist groups have been emboldened to come out in droves to display their strength, posing with guns at multiple rallies around the US over the past few years. The recent drama at Capitol Hill captured a lot of attention, but it should be seen as rather strange that the police who guarded the place had barely put up any resistance.
Furthermore, Pompeo has acted very strange during this whole mess. Late last year, he said that the US would begin its transition into the 2nd Trump administration. Following the drama at Capitol Hill, he has complained that the measures taken against white supremacist groups are censoring his far-right support base and will create an echo chamber.
As if this isn’t all enough, the Trump administration is also stepping up aggression against Iran. Pompeo is using the same tactics and lies that Colin Powell used to justify war against Iraq. When you think about a government that sponsors terrorism or violence, or when you think about a government that is a threat to safety and peace overall, Cuba should not be the first one on your mind.