Cuba hasn’t earned embargo’s end

[Zorro]

In October of 1960, the United States imposed an embargo on exports to Cuba covering all commodities except medical supplies and certain food products. That was the beginning of a trade embargo that still endures and still inspires heated debate.

The anniversary of the embargo, plus this week’s upcoming vote in the United Nations condemning it — which the United States will lose, as usual — have prompted calls for a reassessment. Dropping the embargo altogether would require action by Congress. Meanwhile, anti-embargo advocates say, there’s a lot the president can do to soften or minimize its effects and open the door to restoring full ties with Cuba.

We disagree. Such a move would be premature and utterly lacking in justification at this time.

Granted, Raúl Castro has loosened the reins on the tightly controlled economy to permit more individual businesses. Some citizens can own property, and new rules are designed to encourage foreign investment. But it’s only because Cuba has been frozen in time for so long that such minimal change seems so dramatic. The Cuban nomenklatura still runs the Soviet-style planned economy that largely remains in place, and its members remain its major beneficiaries.

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article3379550.html

[Mika]

1. I love the unhinged comments to this article. Reminds me of the Castrophobes here.

[roody]

2. Dinosaur thinking.

[procon]

3. If we applied these same criticisms to other countries

with communist ideologies and human rights violations, most of the retail stores in the US would go bankrupt, shoppers would revolt when the cheap Chinese goods disappeared, unemployment would spike and Wall Street would panic. As a bonus, we might save a few bucks by not giving China their Most Favored Nation trophy.

C'mon, the Cold War is over, the USSR is nothing more than a page in a history textbook, and the Cuban embargo has outlived it's original intent, which most Americans probably don't know or care about. When no other country participates in our failed Cuban embargo, continuing it just makes the US look petty and vindictive.

[freshwest]

4. Zorro, please give me some answers to some sincere questions and observations I'll make.

On the embargo itself and its effects thorugh time:

Cuba ran afoul of American business interests. They also threatened the United States. It was a different time, when MAD was still a possibility. Americans were pissed and wanted Castro gone. That's not happening anymore, unless one claims Cuba is committing covert actions against the USA now. They've been accused of fomenting trouble in other states to the south of them. But I think the days of America micromanaging are over. We don't have the money or the inclination. It's possible some long term thinker sees something that I don't know that will get a lot of us killed. IDK.

At the point of the embargo being started, the article says that some food and medical were exempted. I've read over the years that the rest of the embargo held Cuba back from modernizing, and they had to get help from the USSR on many things. So it was never a complete embargo, and it wasn't as if the island was blockaded, was it?

Other countries could have done what Castro wanted from the USA. It seems that he has been obsessed with the USA, not the other way. We parted ways, said good bye and forget it and that's the best idea.

That brings me to the UN condemnation. Why do they even bother, I wonder. It seems ludicrous, just a stunt designed to name a bugbear. Cuba is not in their back yard, but over a dozen countries are. We're not that important. And the embargo actually serves the interest of other countries. They can trade with Cuba if they want.

I can understand the harm from the time when the USA made the most cars, etc. Those days are past. Plenty of other nations can do business with them. And they even speak Spanish, another advantage. They are probably trading with Cuba now. American isn't stopping them. Why do they insist on the USA ending the embargo?

If other nations want to do something with Cuba, they don't need the American embargo lifted. Just do it. Canada and many EU nations, Africa, Asia and Russia can have at it.

And true, the Congress is the one who would have to end the embargo. Still, it's not necessary. While not apologizing for the Cuba government's bullshittery with its own people, I don't think the 'we' is that noble.

The article then goes into what seem to be business practices and a good deal of hyperbole. I don't care how Cuba manages its economy. We're not going to invade them and make them do our will, either. But the articles goes on an go about it. Is the 'we' that is referred to, Cuban expats who want to go home? Why be so worried about the economy, business practice and how land is distributed in Cuba?

I feel like the article has been written by people who are looking to get something, and it ain't freedom for all. I bet most Americans think it's NOOB. The 'we' in the article seems keen to deny Cuba a 'lifeline' which I don't think ending the embargo would do anyway. But collapsing the government of Cuba might enrich the 'we' there.

They're worried about the way the government runs down there:

Yet even if these objections could be met, the greater issue remains unresolved: Cuba is still an unforgiving, authoritarian police state that will stop at nothing to stifle those it deems enemies of the state.

Here’s what Human Rights Watch says: “The Cuban government continues to repress individuals and groups who criticize the government or call for basic human rights. Officials employ a range of tactics to punish dissent and instill fear in the public, including beatings, public acts of shaming, termination of employment and threats of long-term imprisonment.”

Arrests of dissidents are going up, not down. Press freedom? Forget about it.

Does Saudi Arabia ring a bell? Sounds a lot worse. How about other nations we have trade with?

To be clear, I fall more on the side of leaving things as they are unless it there is an economic need on both sides that can't be met in any other way. OTOH, leaving it in place will in NO WAY accomplish the goal of collapsing the Cuban government.

And the UN is wasting time on this one. Let the states who want us to do business with Cuba, just go on and do it themselves.

As far as medical supplies from the USA, keep it going. If reports are true, the Cubans are making good use of them.

Explain to me just how wrong I am in this. I've also heard that the Miami Herald is a tool of the ex-pats and I don't believe they should make policy.

[Zorro]

6. Sounds about right to me

but I don't think the Cuban ex-pats, as rabid as they can be, are really driving our policy toward Cuba.

I think the USG is disinclined to restore direct relations with a government whose leader once strongly encouraged a nuclear strike against the US, and was willing to martyr his entire country if such an engagement occurred.

I also think that Fidel is unforgiven for other reasons, and I don't see any rapprochement until both he and his brother are gone from the scene.

[bemildred]

5. Ebola. Cuba just earned plenty in the Ebola epidemic.

A responsible and useful international citizen, that's Cuba.