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If you really want to compare, than take Taiwan. An island just off the coast that China claims should be under its control and than is currently not. Same situation as Cuba a few decated ago, the US delivers all kinds of arms and military knowledge and China is not happy about it.

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Not the same thing at all, since the US never claims Cuba should be part of Florida.

> the US never claims Cuba should be part of Florida

In a way, it does.

Consider: if Cuba were to become a capitalist country, how much of its land and other natural resources would be immediately purchased by US nationals?

Americans can take de-facto ownership of foreign countries without re-coloring any maps.

Well, US nationals of Cuban extraction, from Miami, who always wanted to go back there. But you might as well say that Britain claims to own Spain from the number of Brits who retire there.

Actually, the US did own Cuba for a little tiny while

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_(1898)

and there actually was a war involved.

Cuba was explicitly given up by Spain to be occupied, but explicitly not annexed, by the United States because of the Teller Amendment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teller_Amendment). Thus, while the US may have governed Cuba at one time, it never owned it.

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