A Stitch in Haste

Fidel Castro has offered 1,500 doctors (as if doctors were chattel to be bought, sold or donated) to help in the Katrina relief effort.

The U.S. is, understandably, reluctant:

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack has suggested the Cuban doctors would not be needed because a government appeal for help “has seen a robust response from the American medical community.” But he said all options would be considered.
…
“We will wait as many days as necessary,” Castro said Sunday when he gathered the doctors, equipped with new white smocks and olive green backpacks stuffed with medical supplies, to thank them for volunteering their services to save American lives.

I suggest that the United States makes a counteroffer to Castro: Yes indeed, we would love to welcome your doctors here. As many as you want to send. And your nurses, too. And any other trained medical professionals you might have handy.

Of course, you’d be here in the U.S. for quite a while, given how much work there is to be done. So why don’t you bring your entire families with you? You’re doing humanitarian work out of the goodness of your, and Castro’s, hearts, so why should you be separated from your families? It’s the least we can do in return for your, and Castro’s, humanitarianism.

And when it’s all over, as a token of our appreciation for all that you, and Castro, did for us, we’ll grant you all permanent political asylum here in the U.S. that you were so kind to help rebuild. No one would be sent back to Cuba against their will.

I wonder how “Castro the Humanitarian” would respond to that “humanitarian gesture.”