by Jacob G. Hornberger

July 23, 2026

In an effort to show how good and caring they are, U.S. officials are shipping $100 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba.

Wow! Let’s all bow toward Washington and express thanks for living under such a kind, gentle, and benevolent government, one that clearly loves the poor, needy, and disadvantaged and just wants to help them out.

Let’s also not forget that this humanitarian aid also reflects how good, caring, and compassionate we Americans are. After all, it’s our government doing this Christian-like act. That means that since we participate in our nation’s democratic process, especially by voting, we are kind and benevolent too.

Except for one thing: It is the U.S. government, in combination with Cuba’s socialist economic system, that is responsible for the desperate economic plight that has enveloped the Cuban people and placed them in a position of imminent death by starvation and illness.

That’s what the decades-old U.S. economic embargo has been all about. It targets the Cuban people with death by starvation and illness as a way to induce a regime change on the island, one that would oust the communist regime from power and replace it with another brutal right-wing pro-U.S. dictatorship similar to that of former Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista or former Chilean military dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

We also shouldn’t forget the oil blockade on Cuba that U.S. officials added on to their embargo a few months ago. That’s because the embargo had not achieved its regime-change goal after almost 60 years of inflicting severe impoverishment on the Cuban people. The oil embargo is finishing the job by throwing the entire nation into an economic death spiral.

But wait a minute: What about that $100 million in humanitarian aid? What’s up with that? Does that mean that U.S. officials have suddenly had a crisis of conscience and are now experiencing deep remorse for what they have done to the Cuban people with their deadly and destructive embargo and oil blockade?

Think of it this way: Suppose the Pentagon invaded Cuba and forced everyone to pass through detention camps that were quickly constructed by ICE. In those camps, let us say that hypothetically that U.S. military doctors break every person’s legs and then send them on their way.

I think most Americans would see that type of conduct as quite brutal and ruthless.

Oh, but wait a minute! U.S. officials suddenly announce a humanitarian aid package in which every Cuban citizen is to receive crutches, compliments of the U.S. government.

Wow! What a kind, benevolent, caring, and compassionate government. And I’ll bet that most Americans would pat themselves on the back, especially when they go to church on Sunday, for living under such a great Christian-like government.

Let’s keep in mind something else. That $100 million in humanitarian aid is not coming out of the personal bank accounts of U.S. officials, some of whom are quite wealthy. It’s instead coming out of the income of U.S. taxpayers. That’s what the IRS is all about — to make certain that American citizens send a large portion of their income to the federal government or else be imprisoned or fined.

Question: How can the U.S. government be considered to be good and caring with that humanitarian aid when it’s being funded by money that has been forcibly taken from the American people. Aren’t care and compassion based on voluntary action rather than coercion?

Moreover, how can Americans be considered to be good and caring when it’s the tax money that has been forcibly taken from them that is funding this humanitarian aid? Aren’t good and caring actions based on the exercise of individual free will rather than on the tyrannical actions of the IRS?

Oh, and if the U.S. government has suddenly turned good, caring, and compassionate, then why isn’t it permitting the Mexican government and the Venezuelan government to resume oil shipments that they were making to Cuba before the U.S. government prohibited them from continuing to do so?

Some U.S. officials and American right-wingers claim that U.S. embargo and oil blockade aren’t responsible for the fact that the Cuban people are facing the prospect of imminent death by starvation and illness. They say that it’s all the fault of Cuba’s socialist economic system.

Really? Then why not simply dismantle, repeal, and abolish both the embargo and the oil blockade? Why not simply leave Cuba alone for the first time in more than 60 years? After all, if the embargo and oil blockade are not succeeding in bring death and illness to the Cuban people, then what would be wrong with simply getting rid of them?

But the truth is that the embargo and the oil blockade are inflicting death, impoverishment, and suffering on the Cuban people, and every single U.S. official and right-winger knows it. The U.S. embargo and the U.S. oil blockade and Cuba’s socialist system are two sides of a vise that squeezing the Cuban people to death.

Eliminating one side of the vise would significantly improve the economic well-being of the Cuban people. But that’s the last thing U.S. officials want … at least not until the Cuban people replace their communist regime with another pro-U.S. rightwing dictatorship or simply have Cuban communist officials become loyal and obedient puppets of the U.S. Empire, just like the Venezuelan communist officials have recently become.

Of course, it all goes to show the evil hypocrisy that has come to characterize the U.S. regime.