Hillary Clinton should be honest with Americans about her own direct knowledge that US policy towards Cuba has entirely and utterly failed -- and that the perpetuation of an anachronistic Cold War-fashioned policy towards an island nation just off our coast shows an "absence of strategy" and common sense.
Clinton herself has traveled to the land of 1.2 billion communists, the Peoples' Republic of China, and been an advocate of feminist exchanges and other people to people encounters as examples of the kind of liberalizing currents that can help empower citizens and promote a culture of self-determination. Cuba deserves no less.
IN FACT Senator Clinton, opening up the travel restrictions to Cuba and incrementally lifting the economic embargo may rob Cuba from Hugo Chavez's own Latin American delusions of grandeur. Chavez is trying to spread his influence in the region by providing much needed oil and cash transfer payments to Cuba and allying himself with the mystique of Castro. I believe that Cubans want to make their own way and not be particularly dependent on any great patron -- but ending key aspects of the embargo will enhance America's weight inside Cuba and diminish Chavez's.
The same exact logic applies to Syria and Iran. If one wanted to put a speed bump in the way of Iran's growing influence in the Middle East, then America should start creating a Libya-like track to get Syria back into fully normalized relations with the US and the West -- as well as with Israel.
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/
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