Nica, Nica, Nica

Travis and I are going to Nicaragua during my Spring Break.

"You're going to Nicaragua?!!!"
"Watch out for the Contras."
"Don't we have an embargo against them?"

Opinions die slowly. My father warned that it takes a long time to disprove a negative reputation. His words (once again) ring true. Central America's second largest country, Nicaragua has been through a great deal of political and social turmoil, suffering in the name of revolution or equality.

I was raised in a time when popular opinion believed that the U.S. backed Contras were working to oust the evil socialist Sandinistas; communism and socialism had to be quashed at any cost. I envisioned a Soviet satellite, a place from which Khrushchev or Gorbachev would ultimately stage their attack on the U.S.

Nicaragua clearly had ties to the Soviet Union but the Nicas probably did not deserve the punishment effected by U.S. support of the Contras. The Contras had no chance against the State military/police without U.S. support. Nicas are worse off from the havoc wreaked on their country. Socialism has had many casualties and I am afraid the U.S. will be next on that tragic list. But, socialism can work on some limited level in a small state. The Sandinistas may have successfully provided for their people if the U.S. had not opposed Ortega's government.

While foreign policy requires a case-by-case analysis, an isolationist paradigm is gaining ground on the battlefield of my opinion.