A Fitting Tit for Tat

Cuba on the offensive, scores a direct hit:

Cuba retaliated for the U.S. diplomatic mission's Christmas display supporting Cuban dissidents by putting up a billboard Friday emblazoned with photographs of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners and a huge swastika overlaid with a "Made in the U.S.A" stamp.

The U.S. mission, headed by James Cason, rejected a demand this week to remove Christmas decorations that included a reference to dissidents jailed by Fidel Castro's government.

The trimmings included a Santa Claus, candy canes and white lights wrapped around palm trees — and a sign reading "75," a reference to the 75 Cuban dissidents jailed last year.

Smaller billboards with photographs of prisoner abuse in Iraq went up in less conspicuous places, including near a back entrance to the U.S. mission and at the neighboring Anti-Imperialist Plaza.


Cuba-U.S. relations, never good during four decades of communist rule on the island, have deteriorated during the Bush administration, which has toughened economic sanctions and publicized its plan for a democratic Cuba after Castro.

Ouch! Nothing like more stinging evidence just before the holidays that we've sufficiently lost the moral high ground in the world. All any nation accused of egregious civil rights abuses has to do is merely flash the old Lynndie England card to shut us up.

Then again, I guess, we can always carpet bomb Cuba further back into the Stone Age if they really piss us off...