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Time to end the Cuba embargo?

Thunder

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China has 1 billion people. The govt. is a total police state, authoritarian, dictatorship, with little freedom of dissent. They execute thousands of prisoners a year. And they have a pathetic human rights record when it comes to Tibetans, Christians, etc.

The USA does billions of dollars of trade with China, on a yearly basis.

Cuba has 11 million people. The govt. is a police state with limited political freedom and freedom of speech and the press. There are a few hundred political prisoners in Cuba's jails, though today a good 1/3rd of them are to be released.

The USA has an almost complete trade embargo against Cuba.

Can anyone honestly still defend this policy...especially in comparison to how we treat China, Saudi Arabia, and other dictatorships??
 
Yeah,the embargo should be lifted, if for no other reason then it will take away one excuse that the Cuban Government has for it total mismangement of the Cuban Economy.
WHen the Embargo is lifted, but Cuba continues to go down the economic rathole, hopefully it will be a fatal blow to the Castro regime.
I doubt the US companies will want to invest in a country that is still hard line Marxist, and US Tourist will not be flocking there anytime soon, since the resorts are inferior to those in other Carribean countries.
 
dudalb said:
Yeah,the embargo should be lifted, if for no other reason then it will take away one excuse that the Cuban Government has for it total mismangement of the Cuban Economy.
WHen the Embargo is lifted, but Cuba continues to go down the economic rathole, hopefully it will be a fatal blow to the Castro regime.
I doubt the US companies will want to invest in a country that is still hard line Marxist, and US Tourist will not be flocking there anytime soon, since the resorts are inferior to those in other Carribean countries.
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I would argue that lifting the embargo in this case (funny, 'cause I'm pro sanction when it comes to places like Iran and NK) will actually help to undermine the regime. It not only takes away the regime's bogey man (the US), but the flood of dollars, Cuban American families and even US tourist and their wealth and prosperity would help to fuel greater discontent with the government.

I was always struck by a story I read about East Berlin near the end of the regime. Some big Western Band...U2 maybe?...was having an open concert in West Berlin. Young people in the East thronged to a gathering spot as close as they could get to the wall so they could hear music that was denied them on their side. They knew what they were being denied and the lie that their government was.

That, I think, is Cuba. Lifting the embargo will bring home the point everyday in so many ways to nearly every Cuban.
 
mortimer said:
So does the Democrat-controlled Congress and the Democrat President, apparently.
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It was a Democratic president that first instituted it (Kennedy), and it was a Democratic president that expanded it (Clinton).

The idea that the embargo is the result of Republican policy just doesn't jive with the facts. The reality is, there are pro- and anti- embargo people on both sides of the political aisle.
 
headscratcher4 said:
I would argue that lifting the embargo in this case (funny, 'cause I'm pro sanction when it comes to places like Iran and NK) will actually help to undermine the regime. It not only takes away the regime's bogey man (the US), but the flood of dollars, Cuban American families and even US tourist and their wealth and prosperity would help to fuel greater discontent with the government.

I was always struck by a story I read about East Berlin near the end of the regime. Some big Western Band...U2 maybe?...was having an open concert in West Berlin. Young people in the East thronged to a gathering spot as close as they could get to the wall so they could hear music that was denied them on their side. They knew what they were being denied and the lie that their government was.

That, I think, is Cuba. Lifting the embargo will bring home the point everyday in so many ways to nearly every Cuban.
Click to expand...

Agreed except I am not sure there is going to be a flood of dollars. Cuba is a lousy place to invest money, and I not sure that the tourist trade from the US will be all that lucrative with all the competion from other, better equipped Carribean resorts.
 
Once the embargo is lifted Hymon Roth and Michael Corleone can restart their lucrative business in Havana. :)
 
I don't disagree...I just figured the Cuban American community would send more money back to their families in Cuba...exacerbating the differences between Cubans with family ties and access to the broader world and those with out...and thus causing more discontent with the Government. I agree that there would be no great tourist influx...but of course any would mean even more exposure to all of the things Cubans are routinely denied...cell phones, lap tops, music, magazines, etc.
 
headscratcher4 said:
It hasn't hurt the Castro brothers.
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You got me there.

dudalb said:
Agreed except I am not sure there is going to be a flood of dollars. Cuba is a lousy place to invest money, and I not sure that the tourist trade from the US will be all that lucrative with all the competion from other, better equipped Carribean resorts.
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Money will come rolling in for Cuban cigars. And sandwiches.
 
There's a difference between the Cuban-American establishment (basically, the various Cuban-American organizations like CANF) and the Cuban-American community. I think the community is much more divided on the question than the establishment, but the establishment is the one holding the purse strings, funneling money to candidates, etc.

IOW...I don't think the Cuban-American community is as monolithic as is widely perceived.
 
Pardalis said:
The fact that the head of Cuba's army just took control of the country isn't a good one?
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Not really, considering that while Fidel was President, he was Commander in Chief anyway.

There hasn't been any substantial change with Raul as President.
 
Pardalis said:
The fact that the head of Cuba's army just took control of the country isn't a good one?
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I think that's a good reason to end the embargo. There's no reason to continue having an enemy on our doorstep. I'm pretty sure we can overwhelm Cuba with kindness.
 
The embargo should never have been put in place to begin with. We have never successfully engaged Communism with force of any kind. It is generally as useless as mass infantry formations to put down what Clausewitz called a people's war. The foreign force just about always losing in the long term.

dudalb said:
WHen the Embargo is lifted, but Cuba continues to go down the economic rathole, hopefully it will be a fatal blow to the Castro regime.
Click to expand...

You assume too much.


I doubt the US companies will want to invest in a country that is still hard line Marxist..
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Who the hell needs them to? The Cubans can build their own stuff if they have the capital from selling their tobacco and sugar to the nearest country with a healthy(?) ecconomy.

... and US Tourist will not be flocking there anytime soon, since the resorts are inferior to those in other Carribean countries.
Click to expand...

And they won't be bringing all the environmental problems to displace the working class and peasants off the land and reducing the girls to prostitution like they did when the Mafia ran the country.
 
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