Cuba No-Gooding
Col Mike Walker, USMC (retired)
All,
Recognizing the radical socialist dictatorship in Cuba is not a big deal. After all, we recognized Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany and Josef Stalin's Communist Russia. Hitler, Stalin and Castro. Big whoop! Maybe the Administration can retroactively recognize Pol Pots' Khmer Rouge regime as well?
Is this a shameful decision? Yes, but that's reality.
Will things get better in Cuba? Not a chance. Before the President leaves office, this thing will stink so bad that it will make the Putin "reset" that resulted in the invasions of Crimea and Ukraine look not all that bad.
As for human rights, this United States Marine will not forget nor forgive Castro's butchers. I will neither forget nor forgive what happened to Marine Captain Jeb Seagle.
Who is Jeb Seagle, you ask?
It is name you will never hear uttered by the "Hate America First" leftists but it is a name with an important story.
In 1983, as Fidel's minions moved to enslave Grenada and his local puppets ineptly and recklessly grabbed half a dozen American medical students as hostages, a rescue mission was launched and Captain Jeb Seagle was in the thick of it.
Below is part of the story, told in his citation for the Navy Cross, a medal for valor in combat second only to the Medal of Honor:
SEAGLE, JEB F. Captain, U.S. Marine Corps (Reserve) Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 (HMM-261), 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit Date of Action: October 25, 1983 Citation: The Navy Cross is presented to Jeb F. Seagle, Captain, U.S. Marine Corps (Reserve), for extraordinary heroism while serving as an AH-IT (TOW) Cobra Attack Helicopter Pilot with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron TWO HUNDRED SIXTY-ONE (HMM-261), Twenty-Second Marine Amphibious Unit, conducting combat operations on the Island of Grenada on 25 October 1983. While conducting an armed reconnaissance mission in support of ground forces, Captain Seagle's aircraft was hit by multiple anti-aircraft artillery projectiles and forced down behind enemy lines. Having been knocked out by the blast, Captain Seagle regained consciousness after his fellow pilot had flown the aircraft to impact and found that his aircraft was on fire and burning out of control. As Captain Seagle exited the front cockpit of the Cobra, he saw that the other pilot had been critically wounded and remained helplessly trapped in the aircraft. With complete disregard for his own safety, Captain Seagle courageously returned to the aircraft which was now engulfed in flames and pulled him out. As unexpended ordnance began to cook off all around them, Captain Seagle carried the severely wounded pilot well clear of the danger. Now exposed to heavy enemy small arms and machinegun fire and faced with certain death or capture, Captain Seagle ignored the danger and remained to attend the wounds of the injured pilot by wrapping a tourniquet around his severely bleeding arm. Realizing that enemy soldiers were approaching, Captain Seagle fearlessly distracted them away from the helpless pilot and ultimately sacrificed his own life in an effort to buy time for the rescue helicopter to arrive. By his extraordinary courage, uncommon valor, and loyal devotion to duty in the face of danger, Captain Seagle ensured his brother-in-arms was rescued; thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.
Here is the tragic rest: Shortly after saving the life of gravely wounded Captain Tim Howard (who subsequently lost arm), Captain Seagle was captured by Cuban soldiers.
Since the mid-1970s when Communist Cuban soldiers began serving in Africa, their savagery became a thing of horror stories.
Captain Seagle fared no better. Within minutes after his capture, he was dragged down a dirt road, pushed down on his knees and executed by the Cubans.
We are now dubiously reproaching ourselves over the Geneva Convention* edicts regarding the treatment of prisoners but that does not matter south of Florida. There is no such uncertainty in Cuba as that document only has a purpose when it is set afire to light a cigar -- POW rights be damned.
Now we will recognize these bums. So be it.
The "Hate America First" Club will celebrate but as for this Marine: To hell with the Castro dictatorship.
Semper Fi,
Mike
* News flash: KMZ and his fellow monsters have no legal Geneva Convention rights, those rights are reserved for combatants in war -- not terrorists who intentionally target the innocent for death.
