so why do we still occupy Guantanamo Bay?

[sniffa]

i understand the treaties signed in the first half of the 20th century (including the 1934 treaty that made the US presence there permanent "unless both countries agree to cancel it") are the "reason" but do we have a right whether legally or morally to continue occupying their land, even if they don't want us there anymore?

and the whole, "treaty is permanent unless both parties agree to termination" is mindboggling - isn't it inherent in a treaty that if one side decides it no longer wants a part of it, it's free to break it?

and how can we point to international law (the Vienna Convention) to defend our presence there, while constantly thumbing our nose at it (the Geneva Convention) when it suits us?

[bryant69]

1. I think the main reason is "Screw Castro"

If and when Castro passes on and there is new leadership in Cuba I would imagine there will be a change there too.

Although certainly Guantanamo is proving very "useful" in the war on terror so maybe not.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[terrya]

2. I've always wondered about that myself.

My understanding is we paid a nominal fee to Cuba for it.

We did invade their country. We did plot, numerous times, to assassinate their President. And yet...we still have a base in a country that we have a 40 year trade embargo against, a country that we don't have diplomatic relations with.

It's a very peculiar situation.

[sniffa]

3. since the revolution, Castro has never cashed the checks

(which i believe are roughly $4k per year) save for the first one (supposedly a mixup in the aftermath of the revolution). he keeps them stacked in a drawer.

we also apparently, pointed to that one check cashed and insist that shows that Castro wanted to keep the lease.

[terrya]

4. Interesting

Thanks for the information. I didn't know the full details.

[ManiacJoe]

13. Which means we are getting it for free rent!

:evilgrin:

[sniffa]

14. did we give Cuba a subprime mortgage?

:think:

[MnFats]

5. that, and the idea of scaring people....

...look, pal, straighten up and shoud 'long live big brother' before George Bush revokes your citizenship and you become...

one of the disappeared.....

[Spazito]

6. It is ironic in the extreme, isn't it, that ...

the scary communist, Castro, has and continues to honor a treaty signed many years ago with a country that respects NO treaties in return.

[L. Coyote]

7. The spoils of war. The USA took half of Mexico for 15M pesos, albeit at gunpoint!

1898 - The US declares war on Spain and annexes Guam, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Hawaii.
US forces also occupied Cuba, another former Spanish colony, after the war.

1848 - President Polk defended his ordering the Mexican invasion, but Lincoln had this to say about what provoked the hostility,

"The marching of an army into the midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement, frightening the inhabitants away, leaving their growing crops and their property to destruction, to you may appear a perfectly amiable, peaceful, unprovoking procedure; but it does not appear so to us. So to call such an act, to us appears no other than a naked, impudent absurdity...the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the President."
A. Lincoln, July 27, 1848.

"...refusing to accept a cessation of territory, would be to abandon all our just demands, and to wage the war, bearing all the expense, without a purpose or definite object."
President Polk.

On Feb. 2, 1848, the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty was signed. Mexico conceded Texas, California, and the Territory of New Mexico for 15 million pesos. Today that many pesos will buy one cheap tract home.

[El Supremo]

12. Where did you read that history????

Hawaii was not the property of Spain. It was an independent kingdom full of Americans.

Seems like a bunch of troops (including Teddy Roosevelt) invaded Cuba DURING the war.

The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo did not "concede Texas". Texas was already a state. It did affirm that the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo) was the border.

And I must comment on Lincoln's statement. What absolute hypocrisy! He invaded the peaceful state of Virginia in much the same way as he complained about Mexico not 13 years later.

[Demeter]

8. Because It's There? Because We're There?

And because they'll have to pry it from our cold, dead hands....

it's a macho thing.

[sniffa]

9. same reason we'll be in Iraq forever

oh, and the fact that it's our oil. :crazy:

[annabanana]

10. Jeez guys. . . We NEED our black holes..

Where the hell else can we hold our disappeared without expensive air travel?

[sniffa]

11. oh i dunno

i thought east Europe is doing quite nicely.