December 13, 2013, 12:29 pm
I am not sure the exact date it started, but our embargo on Cuba is over fifty years old. At what point do we declare failure?
Sure, the communists and Castro and Che Guevara all suck. But how much longer are we going to punish Cuba's leaders by making their citizens miserable? History has shown that communist countries become less communist by interacting with the (quasi) capitalist democracies. The most stable dictatorships (think North Korea) are those who are the most obsessive in masking alternatives from their citizens. How much longer are we going to continue doing the Castros' work for them?
Open up our relations with Cuba, not because they have somehow gotten better or deserve our respect but because this is the only way they are going to get better.
February 21, 2008, 10:08 pm
Cuba, Castro, Che Guevara, etc all suck. It is ridiculous to even have to keep making this point against folks who are trying to sanctify them.
That being said, it is way past time to open up Cuba to US trade. When will we learn that we are doing the Castros work for them?
- If the US did not go out of its way to limit contact with Cuba, the Castros would have to try to do it. We are just playing into their hands. Totalitarian governments have a very dicey time in this era of free communications. China interacts with the west, and is improving. North Korea blocks all contact and is not.
- The economic boycott gives the Castros a fig leaf to hide behind as their entire population wallows in poverty. Yes, they are poor, and they are poor because of communism, but the Castros are able to blame the failure of their country on the US embargo.
But they have free health care! They get all the leeches they want.
