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I’d be interested in hearing the opinions of Freepers on the merits of the the US embargo against Cuba. Fidel and his bro’ Raoul are communist bums

I am of two minds on this. On the one hand, we protrate ourselves before the People's Republic of China with their forced abortion policy. We do nothing as Hugo Chavez seizes assets of American firms, and stirs up trouble with our neighbors in our own hemisphere. Cuba's sins seem no worse, and it is certainly a smaller threat.

On the other hand, the Cuban exiles have made their position clear, and they have translated it into political clout. Moreover, both Castro's are of very advanced age. Withholding such a big carrot until a new regime is in place might be the best way to deal with the situation. I hold no brief against those who conclude differently, as long as the lifting wouldn't be unilateral. (People should be allowed to leave Cuba, the Church should be able to operate without state interference, etc.)

Finally, with Obama at the helm, status quo is the BEST we can hope for.

Hmmm, think of all the pent-up demand for GM cars!

But really, it seems strange to embargo Cuba when we don’t do that with Viet Nam. The Vietnamese Americans are largely conservative, hate communism, came here as refugees, and have relatives back in Viet Nam, very similar to the Cuban Americans. Yet they don’t advocate an embargo of their old country. I wonder why the difference?

This thing about the Castros being old and about to die is a canard that I have been hearing about Cuba since I began to go there (as a writer/researcher) in the early 1980s. They’r still there and their families are there, like mafia sons and nephews. Thi isn’t the land of Oz where the death of the wicked witch magicvally liberates the country.

The fact that we made a BIG mistake by recognizing China doesn’t justify making another one in Cuba.

You need to know that all those in favor of LIFTING are also in favor of doing it unilaterally — they want the regime to stay in power.

It’s about to finally go under now — there isn’t even salt in the apartheid tourist restaurants. So giving them access to the IMF and world bank (which is what lifting the embargo would do, and is it’s ral goal) is not the way to go.