It’s not an American obsession. It’s strictly because the Cuban emigres have settled in a key electoral state, Florida, where they reliably vote Republican and conservative, unlike all other Latinos. So the Republicans will go balls to the wall for them, cause if they lose the Cuban vote in Florida, their chances of losing Florida in a close one, and lately they’ve all been close ones, goes right through the roof. The rest of America could give a rat’s ass about Castro and Cuba, one way or another, with the exception of a few aging Cold Warriors, mostly Republican once again. Which means it’s not ALL that important to the Dems and VERY important to the Republicans, so the Dems are always willing to cut a deal with the Repubs on Cuba. No big constituency calling for normalizing relations with Cuba, except for the sane and logical constituency, which I’ll grant you, is not very big or influential in America.
Saudi Arabia? I know it’s a civil rights shithole, especially for women and guest workers (i.e., slaves) but I think the citizens can stay fed and watered pretty good, and are not subject to widespread random slaughter by soldiers and infectious diseases.
I know that, but still, it spreads well beyond Cuban emigres. Otherwise, it would barely be worth mentionning in any ranking whatsoever. Nowadays, it’s a black spot in otherwise democratic Americas. But back then when all of Latin America was ruled by an assortment of dictators, Cuba already wasn’t the worst of the lot. The only thing is that it was “their” dictatorship while all the others were “yours”. And somehow it obviously firmly stays planted in the mind of many Americans much more than it “deserves”.
Sorry, I hate Saudi Arabia with a passion. Indeed, the issue are civil rights (though also fueling extremist Islam). But that’s a hell of a problem. Especially, as you mentioned, for the half of the population lacking a dick. Yes, it’s subjective, and it might have something to do with us (the western world..well, forget it…the whole world) licking the boots of those arrogant medieval-minded assholes.
Back then Biush was in power my own “axis of evil” was pretty similar to his (North Korea, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, Iraq) except for the fact that it included Saudi Arabia too. This backward family run oversized oil company has to go. I wish Bush had some spare bombs to drop on their palaces. And they would have been a bigger hit on Al Qaida than most that were actually dropped during the last decade.