CUBA LIBRE!
Posted on 05/26/2008 9:32:21 PM PDT by The_Republican
For nearly five decades, the United States has pursued a policy toward Cuba that could be described as incredibly stupid.
It could also be called childish, irresponsible and counterproductive -- and, since the demise of the Soviet Union, even insane. Absent the threat of communist expansionism, the refusal by successive American presidents to engage with Cuba has not even a fig leaf's worth of rationale to cover its naked illogic. Other than providing Fidel Castro with a convenient antagonist to help him whip up nationalist fervor on the island -- and thus prolong his rule -- the U.S. trade embargo and other sanctions have accomplished precisely nothing.
Now, with Fidel ailing and his brother Raul acting large and in charge, the United States has its best opportunity in years to influence the course of events on the island. George W. Bush, as one might have expected, won't do the right thing. It will be up to the next president.
Raul Castro is 76, just five years younger than his more charismatic brother, and since assuming the presidency he has acted as if he knows he doesn't have much time to waste. In short order, he has repealed restrictions that prohibited Cubans from buying personal computers, cell phones and other consumer goods -- items that Fidel feared might facilitate sedition or, at a minimum, promote counterrevolutionary comfort and lassitude.
It's true that these measures are largely symbolic -- on an average salary of about $17 a month, most Cubans can't dream of buying a computer, and in any event the Cuban government still strictly controls access to the Internet. Likewise, any Cuban who owns a cell phone can't use it without paying the astronomical rates demanded by Cubacel, the government cell-phone monopoly.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Everyone knows it is strictly a matter of Cuban-American voters dictating policy toward Cuba. The boycott is a dumb policy, but that’s the way things have been. To be consistent we should also boycott China! lol
Nevertheless, are there ANY examples of embargos working on a dictatorship? Recently with N Korea, Iraq, Cuba, etc., the embargos only hurt the populace, and bring about no polictical change. Why do we insist on this as a meanigful policy towards these nations?
CUBA LIBRE!
Latest reports I have heard indicate that the majority of Cuban/Americans favor being permitted to make phone calls, send money to relatives, and visit family in Cuba.
It seem to me that this would help foster independence of actions and better information for the individual Cubans.
“Cuba can trade with any other country it wants to. The only folks pushing for an end to the embargo are Fidelophile lefties and morons on yachts who think Cuba is all beaches and cigars. “
You are exactly right.....If the rest of the world trading with Cuber has not lifted the Cuban people....what is the liberal excuse for them still being as empoverished as they are ?
Of course, to Liberals results do not count....only intentions of the dictators do. In the case of Cuber (have to PC here ala Massachusetts Kennedy) the populace cannot rise up against the government because they have no weapons other than sticks and rocks........and we all know rocks suck.
Mahalo
I wonder if Robinson has anybody in mind. What a pimp.
“Absent the threat of communist expansionism”
I would argue that the embargo is one of the main reasons for the absence of communist expansionism on the part of the Cuban regime.
I used to think that exporting free market capitalism to totalitarian regimes would hasten their downfall. However, we have seen that Russia and China have both allowed a certain amount of free market capitalism, while moving from a communist form of socialism to a more fascist form of socialism, and have both used the increased productivity and capital inflows for enormous military buildups. Based on that alone, I would say that embargoes work. An embargo won’t cause a totalitarian regime to collapse, but it will keep it from having the economic power to become an expansionist, military threat.
I don’t accept the premise that communism is no longer a threat. Maxine Waters wants to nationalize the oil companies.
Heaven forbid that voters should "dictate" policy to government.
castro pimped out his real estate to the soviets to place nuclear-tipped missiles and communism 90 miles from our shore. I say we continue the embargo until the communist government is overthrown and cuba becomes a US commonwealth.
On a side note, don’t buy citgo/venezuela/dictator gasoline because it helps to prop up the communist/socialist presence in OUR hemisphere.
I believe the US policy is that Cuban dictatorship can have the embargo lifted - all they have to do is pay for the property they stole.
How has it not worked? According to the author, it has worked too well.
He's claimin, in a roundabout fashion, that Cuba is impovershed because of our embargo. The whold rest of the world can trade with Cuba, but our embargo is the killer. Mmmm.K.
Excellent question!
I'm sure that there's a good little commie lib out there somewhere who can answer it for us too!
BTW, I loved Maui, and hope to go back there again some day!
There are 199 countries in the world that are free to trade with Cuba, and do.
They regularly get stiffed for payment, but hey. Thats their business.
I’m ok with the embargo. Fidel and Raul will be dead in a matter of months. We can talk about it then. Or Raul can announce free elections, and his resignation, and we can talk about it then.
Really, they could have ended the embargo anytime. All they had to do was make a deal for the property they seized. And stop funding rebel movements all around the world. They finally stopped after the Soviet Union fell, but at that point, I was all for waiting for the Castro Brothers (inc) to step aside. Still am.
I would suggest that Robinson have a good look at South and Central America. For that matter there's a leftist insurgency in Mexico presently, and Cuba's fingerprints are on much of this.
There's some truth to his assertion that the embargo has given Fidel a lot of grist for his propaganda mill, but as other posters have pointed out, Cuba can trade with any other country she wants to.
I remember listening to a radio interview with Ben & Jerry (the leftist ice cream makers) some years ago, in which they lamented not being able to purchase their sugar from Cuba. My own personal antipathy for those two dorks made me want to escalate the embargo to a blockade.
Some country-club Republicans can smell money in Cuba. Principle and national interest won’t matter to them there, as it doesn’t matter with regard to China.
The embargo is good because it helps keep Cuba poor. When Cuba had money, it used it to subsidize Marxist rebellions all over Latin America and Africa.
Everyone knows that I am the only omnipotent poster here.
Amen! Somebody gets it. Greater wealth (from trade, industrialization, etc.) has never done anything but make aggressive totalitarian regimes more dangerous.
Exactly right. The thing is libs are people who earnestly believe that we are rich only because many other people are poor. In short, the zero-sum theory. These nuts fervently believe that if we traded with Cuba, Cubans would be living large. It's almost useless to try to explain to them that its Cuba's stupid Marxism that is keeping Cubans poor. Trading with the ex-Soviet Union didn't make their citizens rich either. Hey libs listen well:IT'S THE MARXIST SYSTEM THAT KEEPS CUBANS AND EVERY OTHER COUNTRY THAT PRACTICES MARXISM POOR!!! There, was that loud enough?
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