Time to Retire America's Failed Cuba Policy
This is the event that fifty years of U.S. policy was designed to stop.
Fidel Castro has announced his retirement. He will be replaced in a peaceful succession, without the violent upheaval that U.S. policy makers have been predicting since the 1960s.
Now that Fidel Castro has announced his retirement, it's time to retire our Cold War era Cuba policy. It failed.
Every U.S. president since Eisenhower has tried to kill or topple Fidel Castro and replace Cuba's government and economic system with something more to our liking. They never succeeded.
It was the express purpose of the U.S. embargo, with sanctions more comprehensive than any we impose on Iran, North Korea, Sudan, or Syria to stop this transition. But it couldn't.
For years, the U.S. embargo has been rebuked in lop-sided votes in the U.N. General Assembly. On October 30, 2007, when we were last drubbed by a margin of 184 to 4 (and one abstention), not a single country in South America, Central America or the Caribbean supported our policy. Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic, three countries praised by President Bush one week earlier for their support of U.S. policy against Cuba, joined the condemnation -- so did Afghanistan, the United Kingdom, and South Africa, a nation whose democracy was born with the help of U.S. sanctions.
As the Cuba embargo sullies our image around the world, it undermines the national interest and our highest values here at home. The embargo sacrifices the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens to travel. It cruelly divides Cuban families on both sides of the Florida straits. Trade sanctions cost U.S. businesses about $1 billion annually, and deny U.S. citizens access to vaccines and other medical treatments. Enforcing the embargo drains resources from the war on terror. By isolating the American people from the Cuban people, we stop our citizens from doing what Americans do best; we can't offer Cubans our support or our ideas, and we're unable to benefit from what they could offer us.
I have been to Cuba close to thirty times in the last seven years and I have spoken to Cubans of every stripe -- fans of the revolution and diehard opponents of President Castro.
Cubans by their nature have vastly divergent opinions, except on one fundamental point: it is Cubans living on the island -- not politicians in Washington, not their kinsmen in Miami -- who must decide for themselves what happens next in Cuba. They cherish their sovereignty, they reject violence and instability, and they want the United States to respect those values as much as they do, especially now that they can see a future past President Fidel Castro and beyond the 50th year of their revolution.
There is a debate happening in Cuba right now, triggered by Raúl Castro on economic reform that is remarkable in its sweep. Leaders have spoken to us with unusual candor about the inability of Cubans to keep pace with prices, but they are committed to raising living standards in ways that are consistent with the preservation of Cuba's political system. We have to have clear minds about their intentions for this debate, its limits, and where it might lead.
Now would be a perfect time to send the long overdue signal that the United States is no threat to Cuba's national security, that we honor the aspirations of average Cubans, and that we are capable of having a constructive relationship with their government.
If President Bush cannot answer the call to history that has been issued in Havana, perhaps his successor will respond with greater imagination when he or she takes office in Washington next year.
People here should not misunderstand this historic moment: the Cubans we know, even determined political opponents of Fidel Castro, are proud of their country, proud of its accomplishments, and persuaded that only Cubans in Cuba -- not politicians in Washington or hardliners in Miami -- have the right and responsibility to determine their own destiny. We owe them that opportunity, now more than ever.
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Well said! Now the next thing that needs to be resolved is the continued hypocrisy of allowing a mass murderer to walk around free in Florida just because the people he murdered were on a Cuban airliner.
W's cupidity in the "War on Terror" is belied by the fact that this animal was allowed in to the US after 43 admonished us not to tolerate terrorists in our midst. And I don't want to hear from the wingnuts about not having been convicted of anything. The man openly brags about having murdered 80 people and the only reason he isn't in jail is because of the US government's grant of amnesty to him.
The trouble is that if we really rethought our policy with Cuba we would have to face our terrible treatment of that country for at least 150 years. The bill to provide democracy and economic help to Cuba once Castro is gone is really an insult. Some Americans still think like Manifest Destiny.
It's hard to dignify our permanent reaction to Cuba as a policy. Especially when a similar current reaction to Syria and Iran is widely disparaged. But on the other hand, it does highlight the continuity of US diplomacy, as inept as it nearly always has been - whether Democrat or Republican. Is it something in the water?
Castro's responsibilities in Africa need vetting, Africa as a continent is a fiasco only made worse by the Supreme Soviet and Cuba's involvement in that body politic... on the other hand once that body politic was dissolved in '91 the ties that bound Cuba's sanctimonious embargo where done as well. [or should have been done]
If we can have liberal trade with China, Vietnam and Libya then why are we still enforcing a "cold war relic" embargo against an impoverished island in our own hemisphere in this most enlightened age of neo-conservatism [besides, its making us look weak]
Its long past due to review this dinosaur that we've strapped to our children's back and move on...
The biggest problem Cuba has always been up against has been those Cuban Republicans that have been promised that they will be put in power once Castro is gone.
You know there use to be an expression, "you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar".
If i ran Cuba i wouldn't let US in- they'll just become another slave state for the Corp'ist-those WE must bring down before we venture back out into the world community
Multi Nationals with out a country to mooch off or hide behind.
Let's start by adding Blackwater, halliburton KBR,....To the terrorist list.
Right on P-Girl! If more Americans understood the
dynamics of the corruption and evil caused by US corporations when they and our CIA propped up dictators like Somoza, Trujillo, etc., then and only then would they respect Fidel for not joining the gallery of criminals that fattened their offshore bank accounts while abusing their own citizens in the name of capitalism.
Once we get rid of our criminal administration this year, we can earn the world's respect by ending our shameful boycott. Cuban Americans that have cried for years while ruining our political system to their own benefit can go back and help their country or just shut up!
Very timely and well said. Thank you. Here's hoping our government is finished with missed opportunities.
His outsmarting and outlasting 10 U.S. Presidents is what makes Bush so upset! How dare this old Latino defy U.S. imperialism and get away with it?
While conditions in Cuba are not perfect, the Cuban revolution has raised the standard of living for the nation's poorest. Cuba today has a better infant mortality rate than any other country in the North American hemisphere! Cuba's national healthcare system ranks just behind ours according to the World Health Organization!
Despite what the right wing fanatics in Miami say, Cubans are much better off since the inception of socialism under Fidel! Que viva la revolucion! Que viva Fidel!
Gotta give credit where credit is due, Castro has gone through 10 US Presidents and he is still firmly in power.
Everything done to him by the US has been a total failure.
Say what you want about Castro but he has made a fool out of the USA.
The US government has made a fool out of the USA. castro just happens to be holding the right cards that our government gave him. Being a fascist is easy (almost as easy as breaking a functioning democracy); bringing prosperity to a nation of people is another thing entirely.
Yes daddysboy, being a fascist is easy, look how easy it was to continue the process of taking the US oligarchic reality to new heights under the current administration.
By "functioning democracy", do you mean government by the people ?
Yeah when, and by how many people $$$
I have wondered for years why Communist Cuba is such a threat to our security while Communist China enjoys most favored nation status. I think it boils down to a handful of Cuban votes in the tossup state of Florida.
You are right on target, Gibbons. Securing the Cuban ex-pats' votes in Florida has only resulted in cutting-off the Cuban market to US farmers and manufacturers.
I think it is time for change, HuffPost has said it all, I do not think I could add more than what has been stated .All the best for the future for everyone ...Dennis Roadnight.
Couldn't agree more. In the long run who is more dangerous to our country?
Dealing with a huge militarily run government in China that CAN hurt us badly if it decided to and we are giving them all the money we can in exchange for cheap gifts and the destruction of the U.S. Middle class.
OR a country 90 miles from us that is no threat at all?
I've never understood the stupidity of the last three presidents in their refusal to grow up and get over it.
But somehow China is no problem????
Morons...t
Because these presidents rely on the Cuban American vote in Florida during elections, that's why they maintain the hard line against Fidel and the rest if Cuba.
Cuba has done well, embargo and all. Can you imagine what Cuba would be like without the embargo.
But the changemaster, Obama, is for keeping the illegal sanctions on.
So much for change.
Obama wants to grant Cuban Americans unrestricted rights to travel and send money to their families and has a history of opposing the current policy as a senator.
Do you think that he's likely to normalize relations with Cuba given that he's the only candidate willing to make a concession without demanding free elections in Cuba?
Castro was no worse than Bautista who was backed by the Mafia. It was utterly stupid for the US to carry on this vendetta against Castro for so long. Now can we finally get to buy Cuban cigars and visit the island. It will be beneficial for both countries for us to end this ridiculous embargo. Cuba has never been a real threat to the US.
It wasn't just the mafia that backed Bautiata Bobzmcishl. I doubt it is the mafia all along and alone that has been dictating US policy towards cuba. Check your history.
We have helped prop up the Castro dictatorship for decades with our embargoes. He has used them to a have a ready enemy to blame the woes of Cuba on and to clamp down on his people. The surest way of disposing of a dictator is the rise of a middle class. This middle class with economic power and knowledge of alternatives can insist on change within a governemnt. Without a bustling middle class, a country may be doomed to authortarian rule.
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Posted February 19, 2008 | 09:59 AM (EST)