Think tank urges Obama to act now on reversing U.S. Cuba policy (Brookings)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Friday, 02.27.09
Think tank urges Obama to act now on reversing U.S. Cuba policy

The Brookings Institution said the White House should not wait for Congress to lift portions of the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba.

By FRANCES ROBLES
[e-mail]

President Barack Obama should not wait for Congress to begin making key changes in Cuba policy, and should start by using his presidential authority to make adjustments to the U.S. trade embargo, a new report issued Thursday recommended.

The Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, D.C., assembled a group of 19 academics, diplomats and ''thinkers'' to chart out a road map for Obama to take action on Cuba. The panel -- led by a former top U.S. diplomat in Havana -- argues that Washington's hostile rhetoric should stop, having failed to bring about changes in Cuba.

''Let's forget the hostile regime-change strategy and begin a policy of critical engagement,'' said Vicki Huddleston, the former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana who co-chaired the report. ``This means no shouting across the street at each other.''

The report, announced in Miami, comes on the heels of a series of moves that signal what some Cuba experts consider serious momentum to change Cuba policy. On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget bill that defunded enforcement on the Cuban family travel ban and, among other things, offered more licenses to travel to Cuba. The Senate Foreign Relations committee released a report Monday making many of the same recommendations as the Brookings panel.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/924015.html

[Old Codger]

1. Time for that

To happen, it has been way too long to be this vindictive, acting like a childish snit over something that doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

[seafan]

2. Not if Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D?-FL) can help it.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz and buddy Lincoln Diaz-Balart oppose lifting travel ban to Cuba., February 26, 2009

Nine members of the U.S. House recently filed a bill that would allow Americans to travel freely to Cuba for the first time in 46 years. But pro-embargo forces in Congress are poised to block it.

It happens every year, said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, and every year embargo supporters kill similar bills before they get any traction. Even with Democrats in the majority , Diaz-Balart says enough bipartisan opposition has been recruited to stop the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act at the committee level.

"While we recognize that these are fights that take place, we have great confidence that we'll defeat them," said Diaz-Balart, a longtime advocate of U.S. sanctions against the communist nation.

He and other Florida leaders, such as Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, have reached out to new members of Congress on the issue. They've found allies, he said, but would not reveal their names.

.....

Helping out her three right-wing Republican Cuban-American colleagues Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen all she can, takes precedence over her constituents' concerns. To do otherwise is, as she herself told us, 'is too sensitive for her'.



Hope Obama will press ahead to restore relations with Cuba.

[safeinOhio]

3. Help our trade balance

They need lots of 55 chevy parts.

[gauguin57]

4. I've been thinking about that lately ... they do need lots of cars and car parts down there.

Maybe Cuba could rescue GM instead of the gummint. Now, wouldn't that be ironic?

[getthefacts]

5. Way overdue

[lsewpershad]

6. The embargo

makes US look silly especially since we have relations with China and other COMMUNIST and SOCIALIST countries.

[Peace Patriot]

7. We have first to deal with...

1. Diebold & brethren and the 'TRADE SECRET' code voting machines in Florida; and

2. The federally funded, fascist, anti-Castro mafia in Miami, which controls U.S. foreign policy not just on Cuba but on all of Latin America.

----

Numerous Latin American leaders--left, right and center--have called for the U.S. to lift the embargo on Cuba. Many included this request in their letters of congratulations to President Obama on his inauguration. The new South American 'common market'--UNASUR--invited Cuba to be a member. The U.S. embargo is nuts, insane, madness, and frothing-at-the-mouth fascist hysteria. And that pretty much describes our entire Latin American foreign policy for the last forty years.