Obama Eases Sanctions on Cuba

One of the least successful US foreign policy efforts is the embargo against Cuba. Yesterday, President Obama moved a little bit closer to abandoning this stupid and ineffective policy. Cubans in exile and Americans with Cuban relatives on the island will be allowed to travel more or less freely and to send money to their family. Naturally, there are some voices that say this is giving in to the Castro regime, but in reality, the economic blockade has been in place since 1962, and the Castros are still in power. Enough is enough.

During the Cold War, Cuba was a great big pain in the American backside. Whether it was letting Mr. Khrushchev put nuclear missiles there or sending Cuban mercenaries to fight in Angola's civil war, Fidel Castro made a point of being the biggest anti-gringo around. This journal has no love of communists, who are little more than fascists who prefer red to brown, but one must also accept reality. The Cuban dictatorship survived the fall of its patron state, the USSR, and there is some measure of support for the system among Cubans too young to know any better.

US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Congressman Albio Sires (D-NJ) represent the rejectionists who were, at best, icy cool to the announcement. They apparently believe that the policy is working, and in just a few more decades, Cuba will be free. Mr. Menendez said, "The government charges an exorbitant fee for remittances that ultimately funds and fuels the security and military of the oppressive regime." While that is true, any student of totalitarianism knows that the security forces always get the resources they need so the regime can stay in power. Preventing Cuban citizens from receiving remittances doesn't change that.

For his part, Mr. Sires said, "We did not get anything in return for this. I think it is a gift to the regime that I don't think they deserve, especially for a government with one of the worst human rights records in the world." Mr. Sires is right. The Castro regime did nothing in exchange for this. However, if America insists on getting something from another country to pursue its own self-interest, the mind boggles at where it ends.

What Mr. Obama is heading for is clear -- normalized relations with Havana. This is long overdue. Pretending that Cuba's red fascists don't exist has not removed them from the scene. At some point, one must stop banging one's head against the wall. It feels so good when one stops. The truth is that the American way of life will crush the red fascists because it is simply more appealing. For almost 50 years, the country hasn't had the faith of its convictions, and it is past time to wreck the Cuban Revolution with rock and roll and bubble gum.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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