So the
Washington Post is reporting that Cuba has made "recent, sizable discoveries of [oil] in the North Cuba Basin". Now all of the sudden our Nation is faced with a problem.
Shall we give up our embargo of Cuba? The WP notes that our embargo has been in place since 1961, Fidel Castro is still President of Cuba. The WP also notes the embargo has "cost America little strategically or economically."
Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, an expert on Cuba energy matters and a political science professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, says America's thirst for oil will soon force a fundamental change in Washington's relations with Havana.
You're telling me it'll have an impact. Why would Bush and the neocons want to wait 44 days for an oil tanker to arrive from the Middle East, when oil in Cuba is minutes away?
Our choice is: Are we going to let those other countries take that oil? Or are we going to look at our strategic interests and recognize that very close to our shores is a substantial quantity of oil that is going to be exploited?
Sure enough, cue the republican hypocrisy machine there is money to be made. Jeff Flake (R AZ-06) and Larry Craig (R ID-Sen) want to exempt the oil companies from America's embargo of Cuba. Senator Craig had this to say during an interview with FauxNews's John Gibson:
GIBSON: Senator, the fastest shortcut around this problem, I would think, would be for the Republican president to call his brother, the Republican governor in Florida, and say, "Hey, we need to drill off Florida?"
CRAIG: Well, it isn't just that. That certainly would help if we could get the governor of Florida and Floridians to agree with it, but we would have to change our policy with Cuba. We have an agreement with other countries in the world and, of course, much of the oil that's developed around the world is developed by many of our companies...
GIBSON: So you are saying that American companies should be allowed to deal with Cuba for oil but nothing else?
CRAIG: That's what I'm saying in this instance. I don't think the United States Senate is willing to buy off on a total relaxation of relations with Cuba. But clearly, here we are cutting off our nose to spite our face. If we drilled in the hemisphere, this hemisphere, the known deposits of oil, we could be producing now over two million barrels a day into our markets.
Instead, we are drilling in high-risk countries. We are dealing in areas that are politically very volatile and, of course, that's what's helped run up the price of gas or oil in the world market.
To translate Gibson Laws, schmaws! asks if the Decider simply cannot tell his brother to go after the oil? Craig responds that it would help, but we still have a problem with Cuba. But, he notes, Cuba isn't a high risk country and they are oh, so close.
As Professor Benjamin-Alvarado notes, "Every day the United States puts off making the path into Cuba, that window of opportunity closes a little more... the Americans are going to be left out."
So now step with me into the neocon mind... The United States' foreign policy is oil driven. Even if we lift our Cuban embargo, Castro won't give us the oil which is rightfully ours. The guy probably remembers Bay of Pigs and 45-years of economic sanctions.Now despite having turned the corner in Iraq, it just isn't working out so well. American voters are paying attention and want their friends and loved ones home. Hmm... Iraq has oil and an embargo, now Cuba has oil and an embargo. See we neocons know that embargoes do not work. Brilliant! We can bring the troops home and invade another oil nation all in one fell swoop. Why even wait until this October?