Members of Congress, missing in action
player ready... As part of our twice-monthly In-House Opinions feature on the editorial page, we poll Southern California members of the House of Representatives for their opinions on matters of interest to their constituents.
Here’s exactly what we asked this week: “For our regular In-House Opinions feature, turning to U.S. relations with Cuba, we were wondering if you could ask the representative about President Trump saying he would ‘handle’ Cuba as soon as his administration moves on from the conflict with Iran.
‘As soon as that’s done, on our way back, we’ll just make a brief little stop,’ the president said. “Should the United States intervene militarily in Cuba? Is the oil embargo, along with other economic sanctions, an attempt by the U.S. ‘to strangle the Cuban people,’ as the Cuban government says? What is the proper way to ‘handle’ the dictatorship there and the suffering of the Cuban people?
” This week, we asked that question of 11 members of Congress across four counties. Precisely two bothered to reply. Just two wanted to get their opinions about this rather important subject into the 11 papers of the Southern California News Group. Apparently, no. A thousand thanks to those two who bothered to let us, and our readers, in on their thoughts.
Here’s what they said: Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills: “The Cuban people have long suffered under a corrupt authoritarian regime that has denied them basic freedoms and economic opportunity. The United States must continue engaging from a position of strength while standing firmly with the Cuban people and their democratic aspirations. ” Rep.
Dave Min, D-Irvine: “The president continues to threaten the illegal use of military force without Congressional authorization. He has yet to make the case to Congress why military intervention in Cuba is needed, what it will accomplish, what our goals would be in any military conflict, and what our exit strategy would be.
If he had done this before recklessly launching an illegal war against Iran, we might not be stuck in a conflict there that appears to have no good outcomes and where we have spent over $29 billion, lost the lives of over a dozen servicemembers, and apparently strengthened the position of the evil Islamic Republic. ” Here’s who couldn’t be bothered: Rep. Ken Calvert, Rep. Jay Obernolte, Rep.
Derek Tran, Rep. George Whitesides, Rep. Mark Takano, Rep. Norma Torres, Rep.
Laura Friedman, Rep. Ted Lieu and Rep. Robert Garcia. We realize members of Congress are busy.
So are we all. If it were us elected to represent the people of Southern California in Washington, D.C. , we’d jump at the chance to address this one, especially in the midst of an administration of a president who campaigned on the promise to not entangle our nation in foreign conflicts, and yet seems to enjoy nothing more than invading other countries.
President Donald Trump got the fever for it when it turned out to be relatively easy to raid an essentially defenseless nation, Venezuela, though what we got out of that is entirely unclear. Three months in, the war in Iran is a disaster. Since it’s not going so well, will our armed forces are going to make “a brief little stop” in Cuba, and what would they do there?
If we were members of the House of Representatives, whatever our thoughts on the truly dismal Cuban regime, we would first and foremost lament in the strongest possible terms that Congress has as a whole entirely abrogated its legal responsibility to be engaged in the process of declaring war. Instead, this White House merely starts wars without any consultation, much less consent, from Congress. Representatives, why not say so?
And then we would note the obvious: First, there is no question but that the Cuban people have been repressed for almost 70 years by a Communist dictatorship that has destroyed the island. Second, a military invasion by the U.S. is the wrong answer to healing what ails Cuba.
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