After seeing what little good the embargo of Cuba has done regarding regime change, I have to assume that we’ve wanted Cuba to be the way it is — a Communist bastion. Why? Just lift the whole embargo and let everyone go there. This didn’t work to anyone’s benefit.
President Barack Obama directed his administration Monday to allow unlimited travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans to family in Cuba, and to take other steps to ease U.S. restrictions on the island, a senior administration official told The Associated Press.
The formal announcement was being made at the White House Monday afternoon, during presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs’ daily briefing with reporters. The official spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to upstage the president’s announcement.
We need a bogeyman. But seriously this is long overdue. My only concern is what this will do to the already suffering tourist industry in Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands, even Jamaica and the other islands south.
Okay republicans…. Tell us what the downside is to doing this.
#2 pedro said, “namely the Europeans (honorable mention to French, Spanish & Germans) & the Canadians”
…so your theory now is that the French, Spanish, German and Canadians have to follow behind American policy?
How very Imperialist of you.
As to the matter at hand: Obama just lost himself Cuba for 2012.
Er, by “Cuba” I meant “Florida.”
Same difference, some would say.
Trade with everyone, rule no one.
About time.
#7, Yep.
#5, Re: Cuba/Florida.
Yep.
If it ever does become fully open, I wonder how many Americans will try to buy those old, well-maintained 50s automobiles.
What good is the embargo doing? Nothing. Time to see if communism will collapse a lot faster when the Cubans are flooded with McDonalds and American culture than it will being isolated.
Maybe if we could have gotten every other country on the planet to avoid trading with Cuba then things would have turned out differently but that didn’t happen and it isn’t going to happen. It may have been a good idea at the time but it hasn’t worked. Time to try the opposite approach.
Only logical move. China is the biggest communist menace and the US just loves buying junk from them. Now the US politicians doesn’t have to go to Canada for their Cuban cigars.
#1 – McCullough – We need a bogeyman.
You got him.
#8 – pedro – Who do you think promotes & economically supports all the guerrilla groups in latin america & abroad (does Angola ring a bell)?
CIA in the 70s, 80s and 90s? Or was that supporting Freedom Fighters?
they US = the U.S.
Castro for all his huffing doesn’t want the embargo to go away. Every time it is suggested he does something to mess things up, like shoot down a plane or send hundreds of thousands to Florida in boats.
Everyone sing Guantánamo! John have you made reservations yet? I know you have to go.
[sarcasm on]
End the Embargo and kill the Cubans with American fast food. That will teach them!
[sarcasm off]
China + Communism + big market = free trade and travel
Cuba + Communism + small market = embargo
#13 I agree, everyone needs an enemy and the U.S. as boogeyman worked well for Castro. We’ll see what happens to Cuba once all the old revolutionaries are gone.
On the other hand, I have no sympathy for the Castro haters either. The good old days to them was when Batista ruled with an iron fist. The Batista regime was corrupt and it deserved to be taken down. It’s too bad the U.S. was in bed with them, and so Castro had to turn to the Soviet Union for support… if I remember my history correctly, he first appealed to the U.S., but we were pissed because he threw out all the mobsters, er, free market capitalists.
#13, not just regular cubans, but he opens up the doors on the nuthouses and prisons and sends the newly freed over on boats.
Castro does not want this…
Finally, Obama is doing something that makes sense.
#1:
“My only concern is what this will do to the already suffering tourist industry in Puerto Rico…”
who cares. gimmie dem ceegars.
# 17 Phydeau said, “if I remember my history correctly, he first appealed to the U.S., but we were pissed because he threw out all the mobsters, er, free market capitalists.”
Yep, we had our chance…
#16 Well said, Mojo. The wingnuts huffing and puffing about the Red Menace look pretty ridiculous seeing as how we’re in hock to the biggest “Red Menace” up to our eyebrows. 🙂
#18 You gotta give the guy props for ingenuity, emptying out the mental hospitals and prisons and sending them to the U.S. (the Mariel boatlift). Clever of him. 🙂
# 22 Phydeau said, “You gotta give the guy props for ingenuity, emptying out the mental hospitals and prisons and sending them to the U.S.”
We should send all of our death row inmates to France… LOL
#23, You evil, evil man 🙂
Oh great, I’m Canadian and I haven’t been to Cuba yet, and by the time I get there, I’ll have to deal with all those loudmouthed Americans…;)
Who’d have thunk it, Now that we have the international reputation for torturing people in Cuba instead of the Castro regime.
Lets face it the embargo did not work out as hoped. Glad we have a President who is willing to change directions when a plan is clearly not working. Should we just let the likes of Chávez have all the influence on the Cuban people?
Personally I thought the US would wait for Castro’s death to move on this. Looks like the baby steps are starting early. Hope it works out for the best. We have not gotten the Cuban thing right in my lifetime.
# 27 Remember the Maine? said, “Glad we have a President who is willing to change directions when a plan is clearly not working.”
If you read the article, regular Americans still can’t travel there and the trade embargo is not really dismantled. It remains to be seen whether he’ll reverse the majority of the embargo…
I wonder if #24 pedro lives in Florida, and he or his parents or grandparents were kicked out of Cuba…
Or more likely, just another raving wingnut who has decided, in his black and white fashion, that the Cubans are EEEEVUL!!!!!
This is NOT open for debate. There is no conversation on “IF” our policy worked. It DID NOT. Castro took power and survived from from JFK to Obama. 50 years F**KING years. Our ‘policy’ of pretending to hate Cuba did NOT drive Castro from power. It DID NOT work. He’s still there, and will die an old man IN POWER long after JRK, Nixon, Reagan have died. It failed.
Second, China is a Communist country, with a one party government which arrests dissenters, outlaws religions, censors their media and internet and we don’t embargo them…we BUY everything from them! Every good-ol-boy with a “Support Our Troops” bumper stickers goes to Wal-Mart and fills up with 90% China made goods. We can travel freely to China. So if China is allowed to keep a fake “one party” rule, censor their citizens and arrest them for opposing the government, how come we trade with THEM and give them favored trading status, but have to PRETEND that Cuba is EVIL. Grow up.
lol….Gentleman, Start your Mules..”
i bet this will be the new
tax haven/money laundering capital
for US interests within….1 week.
-wonder if this will boost drug trade
i feel sorry for the cubans. i give’em a year
before they can longer recognize their country.
-s
#30 Well said! I especially liked:
Every good-ol-boy with a “Support Our Troops” bumper stickers goes to Wal-Mart and fills up with 90% China made goods.
Las Vegas, is a bad theme park. Yes, Cuba can be America’s next big play ground.
#19 brm
About Puerto Rico.
Probably won’t do much economic damage, and in fact may help. Why?
Regular Americans may still be prohibited from going to Cuba, but most Puerto Ricans know relatives in Cuba, and now they can go there and tell them just how much better it is everywhere else.
I lived in Puerto Rico for a couple of years, and they talked about their “Poor Brothers” in Cuba all the time.
This, as much as anything, will end the Castro Regime.
So expect Cuba to limit who is allowed in their country!
Just because we can go there, doesn’t mean they will let us, because they see the danger to their regime as well.