Krauthammer: "Is there no tyrant or anti-American centre in the world Obama will not appease for nothing in return?"
Marco Rubio: "[Rand Paul] has no idea what he's talking about". What's hurting the Cuban people isn't the embargo, it's the corrupt, incompetent, repressive, radically socialist policies of the Castro dictatorship:
50 years of ignoring Cuba has had no effect. The U.S. will have more influence if they have diplomatic relations. The US has embassies all over the world. That does not imply approval of that policies of that government. The U.S. had relations with Moscow at the height of the godless commission power. Same with South Africa during apartheid.
ReplyDeleteThe only ones who will benefit from this are those running the regime - and they're cheering the loudest. Only when the Castros have gone (died or given the boot) will there be any hope of relief for the long suffering Cubans. Until then, not so much. And there's nothing in this for the USA - Obama's "legacy" maybe, but nothing else.
ReplyDeleteI agree with anonymous #1 fully. Besides not all on the right support the embargo. In fact Ron Paul as well as the libertarian party are strong opponents as they believe bans on trade or travel violate one's fundamental freedoms.
ReplyDeleteIn addition Cuba has never been a democracy. While Castro is bad, Batista before him was no better. US foreign policy in Latin America is less about democracy and more about ensuring each country has a pro-American regime and this type of interference as well as screwing over most of the population for the benefit of wealthy American corporations has lead to a strong level of anti-Americanism in Latin America so leftist regimes can gain popular support which they wouldn't have otherwise if the US stopped messing around in the region. When another country is treating you poorly, its easy for a corrupt dictator to blame them whereas if the embargo is gone that excuse would be eliminated.
Calling this appeasement is silly. As if Cuba will invade and conquer the U.S.
ReplyDeleteNot so much. "Appeasement" as used in this case simply means "conciliation" and/or "accommodation" with a presumed goal of getting Cuba to a) behave better towards its own people and b) cooperate with rather than be hostile towards USA.
Whether the policy will make Cuba behave better or not, the US is being hypocritical by not applying similar standards to many other dictatorships that are as bad if not worse. The reality is depending on how you define democracy, close to half the world if not the majority of the world could be considered a dictatorship and economically and politically it would be stupid to apply such embargo to every dictatorship.
ReplyDeleteBesides what about the libertarian idea that people should be free to travel and trade with whomever they wish. No matter who vile a government is, I don't believe it is fair to prevent a person from traveling to that country.
" I don't believe it is fair to prevent a person from traveling to that country."
ReplyDeleteUnfair? Unfair to whom? You might want to speak to the Castros about "libertarian ideas" and "fairness". Or perhaps you are referring to "unfair" financial pain being inflicted on Americans, who unlike Canadians and every other nationality on the planet, are unable to enjoy cheap Cuban vacations at the expense of Cuban slave labour.