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Far past the time this should have been done. I'm no supporter of Obama.. But.. What we've been doing hasn't been working, so it's time to do something different.
Rather curious how south Florida goes in the election in 2 years because of it.. Because it's going to tick off a bunch of Cuban ex-pats.
About time. Every other country in the world deals with Cuba except us. Lots of money to be made and opportunity to be had in Cuba and Cuba has been liberalizing a bit since Fidel resigned and Raul took over. The time was right. Obama made the right decision.
The embargo is still in place. Economically nothing changes (it seems). It just lifts the diplomatic freeze that has been going on since the 1960s. We can assume the rest will follow, but it's unlikely to follow anytime in the next couple of years.
The embargo began fifty years ago and the Castro Regime is still in power in Cuba.
If this doesn't tell people that the trade embargo is a failed policy than they are impervious to logic and reason.
A policy that involved trade with Cuba might actually be constructive. Engagement with adversaries can eliminate or remove problems over time.
Nor, should the rest of the people in this country have a foreign policy in place that is essentially there because of some anti-Castro people in the Cuban American community. One group shouldn't determine our entire foreign policy. If these people want ed to oppose Castro they should have stayed in Cuba and done it from there.
It's decades too late - but, yes, it is about time.
There's no reason for the embargo. Not only does it not effect change in Cuba, it has served the Castros well, giving them a convenient external enemy.
It's a good move for the administration, but it's also a ridiculously obvious one - so I cannot really give great credit so much as scorn for previous administrations of the past decades who lacked the political spine to make such an obviously correct move.
Quote:
WASHINGTON — The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, President Obama announced on Wednesday.
In a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis, who hosted a final meeting at the Vatican, Mr. Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba agreed in a telephone call to put aside decades of hostility to find a new relationship between the United States and the island nation just 90 miles off the American coast.
“We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries,” Mr. Obama said in a nationally televised statement from the White House. The deal will “begin a new chapter among the nations of the Americas” and move beyond a “rigid policy that’s rooted in events that took place before most of us were born.”
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The embargo does not appear to have accomplished much other than isolating and solidifying the Castro government(s). Perhaps greater exposure to us and the rest of the world will help dilute the politics and allow it to moderate some.
Long overdue. As to why we allowed our politicians to bow to a faction in South Florida against the desires of the balance of the country just shows how silly we are. Why was Cuba more of a problem than big bad China and even Vietnam where we lost 50,000 soldiers?
Hopefully, the House Republicans will fund the embassy. As for the Senate and confirmation of a new ambassador, I hope the Repugs do not side with Rubio who is on the side of OLD Cuban-Americans in Florida.
People in South Florida need to come to grips with the fact that more than 50 years of a failed policy requires change:
Quote:
The political ground shook in South Florida on Wednesday when President Barack Obama announced plans to restore full diplomatic relations with Communist Cuba.
Miami, the heart of the Cuban exile community, reacted with a collective shock. Hardline opponents of the Castro regime lambasted the president for what they called a betrayal.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo, a Republican whose father was a pilot in the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue mission, called the Democratic president a sellout.
Meh, should have done it decades ago. As soon as the USSR ceased to exist and China became effectively capitalist, Cuba ceased to be any kind of a security threat or "foothold of Communism in the Western Hemisphere" as it was perceived to be in 1963 when the USSR was setting up nuclear missiles aimed at the U.S. eastern seaboard.
But, before we break out the Havana cigars to celebrate, there really needs to be some kind of compensation for the Cuban ex-pats who had their property confiscated in the 1950s-60s. That should be the price of restoration of full relations. It's only fair.
Anyway -- thought I generally do not support Obama's policies, on this one I agree. I wonder though if he could have done it with more sensitivity, consulting and informing the Cuban community in Florida so they wouldn't be blindsided. As things stand, he may have just cost the Democrats the Florida electoral votes in the next election.
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