LA Times Op-Ed: Obama's right on Cuba

[TeamJordan23]

Obama's right on Cuba
The candidate's call to end the U.S. ban on travel and remittances to Cuba should go even further.
August 25, 2007

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, determined to cast himself as the Democratic presidential candidate most open to new ideas on foreign policy, raised plenty of eyebrows recently when he proclaimed that he would be willing to meet personally with such rogue figures as Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. But that was nothing compared with the opinion article he published Tuesday in the Miami Herald saying Cuban Americans should have unrestricted rights to travel and send remittances to the island.

The other Democratic front-runner, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who portrays herself as the experienced foreign policy realist next to Obama's cowboy diplomat, wasted no time in rejecting Obama's proposal. Her campaign released a statement saying the U.S. stance toward Cuba shouldn't be altered until a post-Castro regime cleans up its act. Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Rudolph W. Giuliani, meanwhile, said Obama's plan would only strengthen Castro's oppressive government.

The astonishing thing here is that after the U.S. has tried for nearly 50 years to force a regime change in Cuba by way of economic embargo with no success whatsoever, Obama is one of the few presidential contenders who dares to suggest that it's time to try something different. Some might consider Obama's move courageous given the political power of Florida's Cuban American community, which helped put George W. Bush in the White House in 2000 and has cheered his efforts to tighten sanctions on Cuba. But the minority of Cuban immigrants who vote Democratic is deeply divided on the travel ban and would like to be able to send more money to relatives at home, so Obama may not be staking out such a bold position after all.

Continue Reading: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-cuba25aug25,0,2951765.story?coll=la-news-comment

[Selatius]

1. I think Clinton's stance on the embargo is foolish.

We had sanctions on Cuba for 50 years. It didn't do a damn thing except hurt civilians. Iraq is a prime example of sanctions hurting the people instead of the regime. The UN estimated 500,000 children died from lack of medicine and lack of nourishment because of the sanctions over the 12 years in Iraq.

[Colobo]

2. Obama is the man.

[monmouth]

3. Clinton's stand on this has turned me off. I am no longer looking at her.

It would appear everytime Obama, and especially him, comes up with an adult and logical reasoning on how to handle various situations, she attempts to shut them down. Enough... I'm over her...

[AtomicKitten]

4. Obama is right about Cuba -- it's long overdue.