>> our sanctions against Cuba because we don’t like their actions isn’t a violation of Cuban sovereignty
I don’t think anyone here has argued otherwise. My OP is not about whether the USA has the right to not trade with Cuba (of course it does) but about President Bush lying about the Cuban government to suit his convenience.
Europeans can decide not to extradite persons to the USA unless they are given guarantee that they will not be subject to the death penalty. What I would not accept is European leaders lying and saying prisoners in the USA are routinely tortured by the American government.
Well, assuming the President is incorrect, do you know he’s lying? I sort of assume he just trusted the State Department report I linked to earlier, that says Cuba does do that sort of thing. If he is in good faith, relying on the State Department (which he has reason to believe knows what’s going on in other countries, because that’s their job), then you can’t really say he’s lying.
I do not believe for a moment that he is in good faith relying on bad information but, in any case, he is ultimately responsible for his government and their failures. the fact that he was acting in good faith would not relieve him of the responsibility of the consequences of his acts.
The State Department, like the rest of the government, tells the president what the president wants to hear. That is what happened with Iraq: The president wanted reasons to go to war, and that is what he got even if they were false. I do not believe for even a moment that the State Department is impartial. Their reports are highly political and countries will get extra points for being on the good side of the USA or be penalized for being on the bad side. The report on Cuba is not supported or justified by any data, it is just the words of the State Department and those words are 100% political in nature. The president may be being fed lies but that is because that is what he wants to hear: lies that suit him. Ultimately he is responsible for the information he gets and for the decisions he makes based on it.
Furthermore, the wording of his accusation is such that it is vague enough to provide deniability while, at the same time, associating the Cuban government with what Americans consider bad things. This is calculated and amounts to lying. President Bush has been doing this kind of thing with Iraq so it is not like it is anything new. Every time he mentions the war in Iraq he mentions this is part of the war on terrorism. It is a vague accusation intended to make people think Iraq was somehow connected to 9/11 and it has been successfull. He never said it openly yet the implication is there and that’s what people think. He has done the same with Cuba: he accuses them indirectly and by association of words which is a form of lying. He knows very well what he is doing but, even if he didn’t, he is still just as responsible.