I rephrase my question to Roger Lafontaine and anyone else:

The Castro tyranny's egregious violation of the human rights of Cubans for the past 49 years (1)is and should be or (2) is and should not be or (3) is not and should be or (4) is not and should not be irrelevant to US Cuba policy?

Enrique I. Alonso
Cuba exile

Roger Lafontaine: Are you suggesting that the tyranny's egregious violation of the human rights of Cubans for the past 49 years is, or should be, irrelevant to US Cuba policy?

The reason we have this negative policy towards Cuba is because they dared to stand up to US bullying and refuse to play the bribery-corruption game that was and still is established American foreign policy in every part of the world. We cannot and dare not try to crush thE Chinese because they are at the moment too powerful. Our scientists are working right now to develop weapons of destruction that we hope may take care of that in the future.

Lou Weinstein: You ask: "Doesn't it make sense for Cubans in Florida to have normal relations with their family and friends in Cuba? Can anyone explain this to me?"

The simple answer: Of course exiled Cubans want to have normal relations with their family. Yet this is not possible while crushed by a totalitarian regime that terrorizes anyone who differs.

Even our right to travel freely within the archipelago is violated, let alone to leave it or return to it as is our human and constitutional right.

Perhaps you are not aware that even though the illegitimate regime recently became a signatory to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, it still does not allow freedom of expression or association. Perhaps you do not know there are informers in every block. Perhaps you have read how dissidents are assaulted in their homes, beaten up in the streets as police watches, threatened to death while the tyrannical leadership encourages mobs by stigmatizing dissidents as 'worms'.

Cuba was on the verge of independence in 1898 when the US intervened, without invitation, under the pretext of terrorism. The US then forced us, under threat of continued occupation, to constitutionally allow it to intervene at its discretion (Platt Amendment). This finally ended circa 1936. We celebrated a constitutional convention and Cuba was instituted as a sovereign constitutional democratic republic with separation of powers in 1940. In 1952, 3 months before elections, Batista, a friend of the US government overthrew the elected government and the US immediately and tragically recognized him as Cuba's legitimate president. Initially Cubans were stunned but eventually they organized themselves into 3 or more groups (students, urban dissenters, and Castro's armed 26th of July). Batista was evicted from power in 1959 and all expected the constitution to be restored, elections to be held. Instead, on Jan 3 1959, Castro began appointing 'presidents' and structuring a totalitarian state. Since then 2 million cubans, or 33% of the 1959 population have been forced into exile, spanning 4 and 5 generations, a cultural genocide and more.

The vast mayority of dissidents in Cuba or exile do not want civil war or violent change. We are aware that many who supposedly support Castro in fact do not, but the regime's control is almost absolute and it of course uses violence and all other means to retain it and repress us, while portraying itself as the world's humanitarian. Some US citizens have fallen for this.

We need the understanding and support of US Americans and citizens worldwide who object to a totalitarian system no matter what its ideology. Normalizing relations with the tyranny will hurt us substantially while allowing them to consolidate the fruits of their crime against the Cuban people. They want to establish a permanent totalitarian state, a constitutional monarchy. We refuse to accept this and also refuse to fall into a civil war trap that could result in foreign intervention and the deaths of who knows how many Cubans. We need and plead for your understanding and support as you would want it for yourselves should you ever end up in a similar nightmare.

If you wish, read the 2 other comments I have posted below.

Some spanish language sites that provide a concrete and actual picture of what is currently happening are:

http://www.convivenciacuba.es/ (includes english summaries - from the island but published in Spain. Not accesible in Cuba.)

http://www.cubaencuentro.com/ (all spanish but has videos. Moatly from exiles. Not accesible from Cuba).

http://www.desdecuba.com/ (In Spanish. Dissidents and regime insiders who want change. Difficult to access within Cuba given Internet access costs US$5 per hour while monthly salaries average $US 15-20/monthly.)

Enrique I. Alonso
Cuba exile

It seems that our policy toward Cuba is held hostage to Cuban voters in Florida. But I don't understand why they want the embargo either. Doesn't it make sense for Cubans in Florida to have normal relations with their family and friends in Cuba? Can anyone explain this to me?

To all the kooks that wish to continue the Cuban embargo, I say get over it. It is time that America stop this shameful charade and normalize relations with Cuba. The Vietnamese seized millions of dollars worth of American property. They killed thousands of American citizens, yet today we travel to Vietnam and trade with them as if nothing happened. Did any politician take the Vietnamese exiles who fought normalized relations with Vietnam seriously? Nope. During the Korean War, the Chinese killed American citizens, yet today we act as if nothing like that ever occurred. It is time to stop the non-sense and talk to Castro.

Posted by: J. D. Simpson

.............

Thanks J.D., it's about time for some boneheads to understand that this embargo and absurd policy are no longer useful, I am amazed and outraged about the stupidity and callousness exhibited by some folks both in Washington and Miami, especially when they rely on logic-defying arguments: that Cuba had missiles back in the 60's, that Cuba embargoed properties, etc, etc but even Cuba as being a communist regime as it is didn't cause so much damage to us as Vietnam and China together, and yet the same boneheads don't seem to mind doing business with these COMMUNIST regimes. Can somebody, for the love of God, explain that???

For all the talk about freedom and democracy the hypocrisy is absolutely unbearable.

To all the kooks that wish to continue the Cuban embargo, I say get over it. It is time that America stop this shameful charade and normalize relations with Cuba. The Vietnamese seized millions of dollars worth of American property. They killed thousands of American citizens, yet today we travel to Vietnam and trade with them as if nothing happened. Did any politician take the Vietnamese exiles who fought normalized relations with Vietnam seriously? Nope. During the Korean War, the Chinese killed American citizens, yet today we act as if nothing like that ever occurred. It is time to stop the non-sense and talk to Castro.

Guardare los comentarios de este blog para que todo cubano, ahora y en el futuro, entienda bien la solidaridad que podemos esperar de algunos estadounidenses, tanto de izquierda como de derecha, inflamados por ignorancia de nuestra tragedia historica por la cual comparten culpa que no reconocen por la deficiencia de conciencia colectiva que se manifiesta aqui.

Todo cubano que lea estos comentarios podra entender por que la liberacion de nuestra patria depende exclusivamente de nosotros dondequiera que estemos.

Enrique I.Alonso
Cuba exilio

Guardare los comentarios de este blog para que todo cubano, ahora y en el futuro, entienda bien la solidaridad que podemos esperar de algunos estadounidenses, tanto de izquierda como de derecha, inflamados por ignorancia de nuestra tragedia historica por la cual comparten culpa que no reconocen por la deficiencia de conciencia colectiva que se manifiesta aqui.

Enrique I.Alonso
Cuba exilio

Todo cubano que lea estos comentarios podra entender por que la liberacion de nuestra patria depende exclusivamente de nosotros dondequiera que estemos.

Guardare los comentarios de este blog para que todo cubano, ahora y en el futuro, entienda bien la solidaridad que podemos esperar de algunos estadounidenses, tanto de izquierda como de derecha, inflamados por ignorancia de nuestra tragedia historica por la cual comparten culpa que no reconocen por la deficiencia de conciencia colectiva que se manifiesta aqui.

Todo cubano que lea estos comentarios podra entender por que la liberacion de nuestra patria depende exclusivamente de nosotros dondequiera que estemos.

Gotta love those Cubans. How about that Mariel boatlift, when Castro unloaded all his criminals and nutcases on the US. I think Eugene Robinson was one of them. Great society. I don't know what they'd do without Hugo's oil...

There's nothing mystifying about the fact that China isn't democratic yet after 25 yeras of engagement: any political scientist who studies democratization (and yes, I'm one of them) can tell you that the transition to democracy almost always occurs when a country reaches a GDP per capita of between $8,000 and $12,000 per year. After recent adjustments to the statistics, China's GDP per head is somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000--it would thus be absolutely shocking had China become democratic already. The primary exceptions to this rule (for reasons that aren't clear) are a handful of large, ethnically diverse countries, namely India, Indonesia, and arguably the Phillipines--and while, yes, China is large, it's not as diverse as India or Indonesia.

The Cuba policy is obviously a failure. However, there is a way out. I encourage people interested in the issue to read a great book entitled "Nixon and Mao." This book documents Nixon's secret overtures to China, initiated by Kissinger's trip to meet Chou to set up further contact. We are all aware of the "Nixon to China" legend, and that can be applied to Cuba. Nixon faced heavy political backlash had he announced his plans to open things up with China in public. He caught the world by surprise, and the rest is history. This type of overture to Cuba might be less complicated due to the fact that there is no Taiwan issue.

This book documented the insanity of the Cultural Revolution and the "Great Leap Foward." It can be said that China was an insane asylum under these so called programs. While obviously China is not a democracy, the changes that have been wrought since that time are breathtaking. While the Internet is not free, college students are being taught in the ways of democracy by Western professors, and are clamoring for more feedoms. In another 40 years of progress, the current system just might be a very distant memory, at least for young people. I say that the time is now. If it can be done with China, it can be done with Cuba, and probably much more quickly, since the Cubans in South Florida would generate rapid changes if allowed to travel back to the old country, and the mainland Cubans were allowed to partake in the American way of life.

More than forty years of embargo has not produced any change in Cuba. Fidel Castro, fine thanks. He will die of old age and has survived seven (if I am not wrong) US Presidents. It is about time that we change our policy and open up beginning with easing the travel restrictions. It is for this reason that I will vote for Sen Obama who will make that possible.

Barack Obama, top student, knows what most Americans do not know about "the embargo". American companies have been selling hundreds of millions of dollars in agricultural+++ products to the Communist government of Cuba, headed by one or more Castro brothers. Enriching said Communist government, and enriching, as well, American companies. Especially those in the red states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and the swing state of Florida.

Cubans have been drinking Coke and Pepsi, via Mexico, via NAFTA, and representatives from American companies enjoy cigars and rum and prostitutes at Cuban trade shows year after year.

Barack Obama has agreed to maintain this trade "embargo", which is not really an embargo at all, but the words are what the exile community finds familiar and reassuring, even if they have been eviscerated since the Clinton administration.
In addition, Sen. Obama has promised to eliminate the harsh and hypocritical travel policy for family members, and to remove the cap on remittances. The Cuban exiles have suffered under the repressive Bush policies, as have their relatives on the island, and most exiles are desperate for 2009 to see the laws changed.

Once the families are allowed to visit...there will be no more embargo. Barack Obama knows this. He just isnt allowed to say it. He is brilliant, not stupid, or didnt anyone tell you?

Cubans have known for at least 50 years, but the American media is in no hurry to inform their audience that all Castro brothers are not created equal. There is no love lost between Fidel and his younger (half?) brother Raul. His reforms have been trivialized in the American media....cell phones, microwaves...but Raul has also opened up La Juventud to dissent, eliminated the death penalty in all but two cases, replaced the Camelo buses, raised salaries and pensions.

Completely stupid policy is what we have today. Raoul won't live forever and there will be a power vacuum. By opening trade, travel and work visas, we can turn their country into a friend. We certainly can use Cuban doctors in underserved hispanic areas as well as fruit pickers in Florida. The more they interact with us, the more they will think like us and be friendly. Ethanol from sugar is 8 times more potent than corn ethanol and should not be discouraged from there nor Brazil. There is enough hunger in the world to sell our corn overseas keeping the subsidies but changing from ethanol to feed and food corn.

It is clear to me that Cuba really doesn't need the U.S. at all. Other countries are beginning to realize this too. The U.S. has lost more due to its own embargo than Cuba has.

Our policy in Cuba is not based on politics, it is based on money. When Castro took over Cuba he chased all of the American Corporations out of Cuba and nationalized the companies that were left behind. According to American Foreign policy, it is quite alright to imprison, humiliate, murder, maim and torture anyone for any reason. But don't screw with the American Corporate dollar or you'll be ostracized forever. The only way we will again have relations with Cuba is if there is a profit for Corporate America.

"When Cubans fled their country in the early Castro era, they had to leave their property behind, rather similar to what Jews experienced in pre-war Germany -- you get to take a suitcase with clothing, and anything left behind belongs to the government."

Cubans left for economic reasons, they could have stayed. By leaving they forfeited everything they owned, the GOP call it a personal choice.

"As long as the Cuban government is helping Hugo Chavez set up secret police and spy agencies in Caracas, Ecuador and Bolivia, why should we change our policy?
The Cuban government also has increased their number of spies in the United States.
If the Cuban government is so harmless, why are they exporting terror and repression in South America?"

Is that the latest chatter on entertainment talk radio? What about U.S. spies??

"What I object to--and the entire world should--is those repressive regimes NOT allowing someone who believes otherwise the option to leave to go to a country with freedom--either through outright prohibition upon such travel, or by economic repression that traps such a person in a country with no alternative."

And that country would be the USA's biggest trading partner...China!

"the goal for the most recent 20 years is to let the Cuban people know that when Fidel and Raul die, they should make certain the next regime doesn't become a nuclear missile base for our most dangerous enemies."

Who are our most dangerous enemies with nuclear missiles capable of doing what the Soviet Union did? Kind of a weak reason for embargoing Cuba IMO.

Bottom line politicians are pandering to a population of whiners.
U.S. politicians drove Castro into the arms of the Soviet Union just like the colonial powers drove Viet Nam deeper into the arms of China.
USA hasn't had a rational foreign policy for 100 years or more especially where Cuba is concerned!

The biggest difference is that USA LOST it's discretionary invasion/war against Cuba, whereas it merely fought to a stalemate against China in Korea. USA hubris can NEVER admit a defeat, not in Vietnam, and not in Cuba. Even now, McCain blames liberals in Congress and the media for the "loss" of Vietnam, and he fails to recognize that Vietnam only became a friend of USA AFTER USA was thrown out. It is time for USA to recognize the legitimacy of nationalism in other countries. This is true of Fidel in Cuba, it is true of Sistani and of Sadr in Iraq, and it is true of Iran.

Simple: China is a big country and makes many rich people in the U.S. richer.
Cuba, on the other hand, is a small counhtry that dared to stand up to the United States and must be punished.

Our Cuba policy is just insane. It hasn't done anything to kick the communists out of power. All it's done is keep the Cuban people in poverty.

The embargo will not bring down the Cuban government.
There is a "sweetheart deal" for oil from Chavez. The Chinese are buying minerals.
There is income from tourists. Cubans outside of their country send millions to
their families.
Airlines, including the US pay to fly over Cuba, etc.
Someone needs to tell the Miami Cubans how nice it would be to be able to take a flight from Miami to Havana (cheap).
I expect the embargo to end after Bush is
out of office. The Cuban people are suffering but the Government is not.

China is big and powerful. Cuba is small and weak. America prefers to intimidate and demonize the small weak adversaries as an indirect way of trying to impress potential big powerful enemies. It's a standard tactic for bullies.

I agree that it is high time we review our policy on Cuba, which has never worked and which has caused us a lot of headaches. Everyone trades with Cuba except us. When something doesn't work, why stick with it. Who are we pleasing? Seemingly, a few die hard Cubans, living in America, are letting their hatred of Castro, who has never missed a meal due to our embargo, leave the Cubans in Cuba stranded forever. We have tried the stick for some fifty years and it didn't and doesn't work. It's time we give the carrot a try. Interacting with the Cuban people will be much more effective in bringing that country in from the cold. Our friendship will instill hope in the people and thereby restore and increase their resolve to struggle for freedom. Isolating the Cuban population, as we have done, played into the hand of Castro. A people isolated and without hope are much more submissive. When we kept our relationship with the Philippine people open and friendly, first they took hope and then they took action to depose Marcos. A similar thing could very easily happen in Cuba. Isolation is a form of darkness from which few escape.

One big difference between China and Cuba...China has its own nukes to lob at us. Castro only had borrowed nukes.

Haiti was the first of the slave colonies to revolt and a free country. The US has been making them pay ever since.

I am also sure the Castro brothers have the staff at the Lenin Musuem on retainer. They must figure if Lenin looks as fresh as a daisy after nearly 100 years of death, they would do even better if they consult them whilst still alive.

Bottom line, the Cuban exhiles need to decide to either whizz or get off the pot as the US's Cuba policy has got to change. 50 years and still the same results? Total insanity. The US is the only country in this boycott, that is why it is not working.

Our Cuba policy is almost entirely driven by the interests of Cuban exiles in Miami and elsewhere who have high level Congressional connections because of their former, and potentially future, money-making abilities in Cuba. If they can't have it, nobody can.

One day -- perhaps in my lifetime -- we will get politicians with the cojones to tell the Cubans of Miami to go f*** themselves. Then maybe we can get a rational Cuba policy.

I think for the first 30 years the goal was to dislodge Castro. After that has proven impossible, the goal for the most recent 20 years is to let the Cuban people know that when Fidel and Raul die, they should make certain the next regime doesn't become a nuclear missile base for our most dangerous enemies.

Your argument that Cuban exiles in Miami dictate U.S. policy is ridiculous.

John F. Kennedy had to deal with nuclear missiles being installed ninety miles from American soil. Remember?

What was Kennedy supposed to do? Invite Castro for tea?

What is the U.S. supposed to do when Cubans try to reach Florida inside barrels or boxes, rowing with their hands? Let them drown out there?

Yes, Cuba is still a brutal communist dictatorship. Is the U.S. to blame for that?

And Haiti is still a failed state.
And the FARC still keep hundreds of hostages in the Colombian jungle.
And Hugo Chavez still rules Venezuela.
And Ecuador just granted amnesty to 1,200 drug traffickers.
And Mexicans keep crossing the border.
And many Americans wear "Che" t-shirts.

What a failure.

I wouldn't fuss too much about the purported "seizure of US assets" in and after the Cuban revolution. The United States "won" Cuba from Spain in a trumped up war, a war sold to the American people by fraud (does this sound like Iraq?.
Spain also never had any legitimate claim to it in the first place...THEY took it from the natives, who were largely killed, enslaved or displaced). The legitimacy of whatever assets in Cuba Americans may have obtained while the United States "owned" it is as suspect as that of the fraudulent, violent, even murderous pedigree of control by which the United States claimed to own the island.

Jennifer:

If you believe the lifestyle of "equality [translation: everyone has nothing], free education [translation again: indoctrination to the party line--and don't we offer free education to all here?], and free health care for all [a debate that could go on all day]" is such a noble goal to aspire to, you can go to your local or Federal government offices, renounce your American citizenship, and get a one-way ticket to Cuba. Be sure to be ready to donate everything you own in assets to the Cuban government when you arrive there--we can't have you being "unequal," after all. Let them give you an appointed government job.

You see, we allow you the freedom of such choice. THEY DON'T. They also don't allow you the basic human right of freedom--the freedom to better your life or your family's, the right to start the business you want, the right to be wealthy, the right to better lives for others through charity, etc.

There are people out there who sincerely believe that, given the alternatives, the lifestyle in a repressive regime like Cuba or China is a preferable option. And we in the "free world" allow you the option to voluntarily submit yourself to such a life.

What I object to--and the entire world should--is those repressive regimes NOT allowing someone who believes otherwise the option to leave to go to a country with freedom--either through outright prohibition upon such travel, or by economic repression that traps such a person in a country with no alternative.

While the media goes mad over Obama and Wright and Ayers they neglect the Bush families ties to far right Cuban terrorists. This piece from the UK Guardian sums it up well.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,851913,00.html

Also Orlando Bosch, who was involved in the 1976 mid-air bombing of a Cubana Airlines flight that killed 73 people, including members of the Cuban national fencing team. He was pardoned in 1992 by the elder Bush and is sitting in Miami drinking Cuba Libre's.

So much for the Bush maxim "one of the lessons learned after September the 11th is that we must hold people to account for harboring terrorists. If you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you house a terrorist, you're as equally guilty as the terrorist."

One essential difference:
China, while it has maintained its totaslitarianism, has abandoned its socialism/commuinsm.
Not so, Cuba.
Our governements, particularly republican ones, don't mind dictatorships so long as they oppress workers more than employers.

Great Post Isabel! I agree 100%.

I am a big Obama supporter, and this is one area where I'm dissappointed with him. He showed courage and leadership on the gas tax issue and on so many other issues (black issues, energy, foreign policy), yet he hasn't summoned the courage to tackle this issue.

But, I'm confident that when he get's in office, he will work to normalize relations. We'll see.

I'm more stumped now...

We are keeping the American policy on Cuba because it works. It has not worked to oust Castro from Government, it has not worked to bring democracy to the island, it has not worked to make the lives of those who live in Cuba better; but it has worked for the politicians who get millions in campaign contributions from Castro foes in the US. So since it works for the policy makers, it will stay as it is; only cosmetic changes as long as the status quo is maintained. Everyday more Cubans come to the US to eventually become citizens and able to contribute to politicians who promise them they are doing their best to get Cuba out of the hole where it has been for almost 50 years. It will never happen; as the day things change in Cuba our politicians will have to work harder in finding finance sources for their campaigns. I just wonder how many contributions our politicians have got in the last 40 years from those that came from China, or Vietnam? The difference is that the Cuban policy make sense for politicians.

As long as the Cuban government is helping Hugo Chavez set up secret police and spy agencies in Caracas, Ecuador and Bolivia, why should we change our policy?

The Cuban government also has increased their number of spies in the United States.

If the Cuban government is so harmless, why are they exporting terror and repression in South America?

For the poster griping about seized assets - I believe the US is running roughshod over Iraqi assets right this minute, and I don't hear any protests about the no-bid contracts awarded illegally to powerful friends of Bush's.

Most Cubans were no better than downtrodden serfs in an insanely feudal society run by rich plantation owners, most of whom were foreigners, before the revolution came and Castro freed them. Now there is equality, free education, and free healthcare for all. Maybe the rest of the world should consider adopting Cuba's thrifty, healthy way of life. It would save ressources, and just think of all the obese American kids who won't need to go on anti-cholesterol drugs.

All comments on Cuba ignore the fact that Castro seized US-owned assets worth (in 1960 dollars) nearly $2 billion, with none of the compensation required by international law. What they might be worth today is impossible to calculate, given that much of the value has been ruined by his subsequent idiotic management of the island's economy.

One might note that when Mexico's President Cardenas took over US-owned oil in the late 30s, even schoolchildren contributed their pennies to pay for it.

When Cubans fled their country in the early Castro era, they had to leave their property behind, rather similar to what Jews experienced in pre-war Germany -- you get to take a suitcase with clothing, and anything left behind belongs to the government.

If we wish to regularize relations with Cuba and forgive all debt, we need at least to acknowledge these facts.

dpharrington@embarqmail.com

...........

So?

I we really wish to regularize relations with Cuba all we need to do it pretend is China, anything else is BS.....pure BS.

We can have as many explanations or justifications every single day and yet, all of them defy any logic and common sense.

TallDeepVoice:

You do a good job pointing out the idiosyncracies of the policy differences. I have Canadian and British friends who have been to Cuba as well.

However, let's look at what you left out:

You, as a Canadian, have not only the right to buy a round-trip (or even one-way, if you so choose) ticket to Cuba, but also the financial means to do so.

Cubans have neither.

Cubans do enjoy a country with no commercial clutter or outdoor advertising, true. They also have little food choices in the food markets, drive about in Third-World cast-off automobiles or 50-year-old cars run with the moral equivalent of a dog on a treadmill under the hood, and run hundred-year-old steam locomotives on their sugar plantations. Do you think they do that because they like it that way? Would you really prefer that almost every store in America be the equivalent of the seedy corner store in a bad urban neighborhood, with a very limited selection, wilted produce, etc.?

Suppose you think Fox News, or NPR, is a "government tool" relentlessly parroting the "party line", and you have no forums available to hear or voice criticism of the government--and no Internet channels, either. For all the asinine people saying that our current administration is engaging in censorship and control of the press, I'd love to have them spend a month in Cuba's political environment (oh, and make the same money, eat the same foods, etc.).

I know that American double-standard policy towards Cuba is ignorant at best and appalling at worst--but I can say the same thing for those who think the status quo in Cuba is a worthy objective.

I say once again: YOU have the right and means to get a one-way ticket to go there. THEY don't have the right or ability to come here, save floating on a barrel or door.

Our Policy towards Cuba is a 50 year complete failure. Plain and simple. Its time to change course and stop wasting our time and money.

The answer is that China is big and powerful, and Cuba is small and weak. Bullies always pick on the weak.

As a Canadian, the US policy toward Cuba has always seemed completely irrational. I see it pretty much as cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

That said, some of the wonderful things about visiting Cuba on a regular basis(apart from meeting a lot of really friendly, healthy, well-educated poor people) is that there is NO advertising, NO malls, NO corporate anything, and of course, no tacky American tourists flaunting Yankee dollars and "We're #1" attitude.

The Cubans I've met all know what they have (health, education and social systems)and want to keep it as much as possible. They also know what they DON'T have and what they don't want. What they fear most is a tidal wave of "progress" that will sweep everything away and replace it with a North American-style econo-culture. Considering where that particular model has gotten us, who can blame them for being fearful?

All comments on Cuba ignore the fact that Castro seized US-owned assets worth (in 1960 dollars) nearly $2 billion, with none of the compensation required by international law. What they might be worth today is impossible to calculate, given that much of the value has been ruined by his subsequent idiotic management of the island's economy.

One might note that when Mexico's President Cardenas took over US-owned oil in the late 30s, even schoolchildren contributed their pennies to pay for it.

When Cubans fled their country in the early Castro era, they had to leave their property behind, rather similar to what Jews experienced in pre-war Germany -- you get to take a suitcase with clothing, and anything left behind belongs to the government.

If we wish to regularize relations with Cuba and forgive all debt, we need at least to acknowledge these facts.

dpharrington@embarqmail.com

Andrea, I see you are a smart person. "Really spicy food" makes your brain hotter: Korean food is spiciest in the world.

If you write a series of editorials examining why South Koreans went crazy with American beef, then you will win the Pulitzer Prize.

God is also fair: He has given us a gift of being smart so that you can share your knowledge with others who do not have such a smart brain that you have.

So, think why you are smart.

The Castro brothers probably won't live much longer. Perhaps their deaths will break the impasse. I'm looking forward to the day that Cuba is re-integrated into the North American economy.

CONTINUATION OF MY EARLIER COMMENT

While the initiative to allow cubans to connect to the Internet backbone should be commended and welcomed, it will only have political consequences if 2 conditions are met:

1. Individual cubans (not the regime) should be allowed to access the backbone directly through US servers.

2. The US companies offering the service should be legally prohibited from censorship of the input or the output.

Otherwise, the Internet initiative would degenerate into just one more weapon for repression and totalitarian control, with US complicity.

Enrique I. Alonso
Cuba exile

I do not know who wrote this, but one thing is clear: Why can't you think??

"John McCain, not surprisingly, is even less interested in reconsidering this failed policy. His rhetoric, if anything, suggests a desire to further ratchet up pressure on Havana."

I do not think this statement is fair either. Both candidates have not debated yet, so why do you conclude things about things you do not know?

Please think, think, and think before concluding.

However bankrupt our Cuban policy may be, it is the only thing keeping the island from becoming a playground for the moral decrepitude of our corporations and the social bankruptcy of the super rich.

Nothing will destroy Cuba faster than American "investment".

Indeed our Cuba policy is dictated by the Miami politics. However it is also the case that Cuba simply can't do us much harm, so why not make the Cuban exiles happy in Florida.

On the other hand, if Cuban has 1.3 billion people and armed with nukes, we probably would have talked to them a long time ago.

Cuba also skews our policy on illegal immigration. People from any other country must apply for residency and go through all the legal hoops to enter the US to stay here. But Cubans have special privileges. A Cuban is here forever as soon as he sets foot on dry land in the US. And is eligible for welfare and social security.

Compare this to what we know what happens with Mexicans.

Cubans have also brought their 3d-world culture of political terrorism to the US. In Miami, Cubans car-bomb people who dared suggest that we admit the reality of Fidel. Cubans issue death threats and bomb threats against art museums that consider showing works by contemporary Cuban artists. The Cuban community in Miami not only fails to reject politics by terror, it embraces it. Jut look at mass terrorist and airplane bomber Luis Posada Carriles. He blew a civilian airliner out of the sky, killing 73 people. The Cuban community hails him as a hero. All while the rest of America is forced by electoral politics to kow-tow to these 3d-world refugees. Of course, the rest of the world hasn't failed to notice our hypocrisy on coddling Carriles while lashing out at anyone else who might have any connection whatsoever to terrorism.

The Cuban community are not real Americans. They claim to be here only until they overthrow Castro and go back to ruling Cuba like a 3d-world dictatorship--just like under Batista. Anyone who's been to Miami knows there has long been large areas where English has not been spoken for decades. This clearly shows that Cubans have no real interest in assimilating. They reject American values of pluralism and tolerance, instead creating a 3d-world enclave with 3d-world values right in the middle of the USA.

We need direct election of the President to remove the cancer of pandering to Cubans and other narrow special-interest groups. Then we need to repeal the law allowing Cubans to stay here and deport them like they were Mexicans. Then they can reapply just like Mexicans.

The actions of the Cubans in Miami are all any American needs to say "Viva Fidel! Viva La Revolución!"

While Andres Martinez cogently argues against the effectiveness of the embargo, he does not answer at least one of the questions he raises: China. What has open relations with China done to end the dictatorship of the Communist Party?

In 1952 Batista overthrew Cuba's constitutional democracy. Instead of opposing him, Harry Truman engaged him. No embargo whatsoever. Indeed, Truman recognized Batista as the legitimate president of Cuba in just 15 days. American businesses (and the Mafia) thrived and Cuba was enjoyed by US citizens wishing a vacation. Meanwhile Batista tortured and killed adversaries while holding mock 'elections'.

Is this the 'new' Cuba foreign policy Mr. Martinez would want instituted? Why would he expect results to be substantially different from what happened either with Batista under Truman (and subsequently under Eisenhower), or what has happened with China? If he does not expect a substantial change, then what would be the purpose of changing the policy?

That is not to say that there aren't strong reasons to change US policy, such as some Mr. Martinez has mentioned. For example, the embargo could no longer serve as the totalitarian regime's excuse for repression of civil rights, encarcelation, beatings, home assaults, and death threats of opponents, summary trials and executions, or denying Cubans the right to free, multi-party democratic elections as guaranteed by the constitution which both the Batista and Castro regimes have trampled upon.

I don't believe that the embargo has worked or that ending it without conditions will rectify what happened in 1952,, and the historical record backs both of these views.

Last week the Bush administration offered the regime the opportunity to purchase Internet backbone services from US companies. That was a smart calibrated move to which the regime has yet to respond, For the lifting of the embargo to be effective it should be implemented with initiatives like this, piece by piece, with political consequences for the regime at each step of the process.

Enrique I. Alonso
Cuba exile

Yonkers, New York
11 July 2008

It is primarily those Cuban exiles in Miami who have dictated policy on Cuba.

That, simply, is a fact. And that is an anomaly unprecedented in U.S. history.

The U.S. president and the Congress have pretty much abdicated their responsibility to set and implement U.S. policy for Cuba, concerned more about losing the Cuban vote of Miami than of doing what the Constitution and the American people expect them to do.

The continued embargo against Cuba is no longer tenable. It has lost its meaning and validity a long time ago.

Mariano Patalinjug
MarPatalinjug

One of the best ideas I've come across, that turns renewed relations between the US and Cuba into a win-win for both countries, was articulated in a brilliant article titled "Cuba Si Saudi Arabia No."

It makes the case that Cuba, with its vast fields of sugar cane, could, with renewed, aggressive diplomacy by President Obama (McCain wouldn't consider this because his oil buddies would oppose it), become our new Saudi Arabia by converting its crop of sugar cane (as Brazil did with its sugar cane crop in becoming energy independent) -- which produces 7 times as much ethanol as Iowa corn does -- into endless, affordable energy for us all.

Such a bold partnership would create jobs for Cubans (which they desperately need) and revenue for Cuba (which it desperately needs for basic infrastructure and social needs) while it gives the US a close-by, friendly neighbor who can produce the quantity of renewable bio-fuels it would take to power a fleet of new, fuel-efficient hybrid cars.

John Michael Spinelli, the author, has come up with a blockbuster idea not given voice by any one, not even Obama. It makes great sense, in spite of the political Neanderthals of south Florida's neo Cuban community who still want to fight the Cuban revolution of 1958 all over again. We can't live in the past any more; its time to shake hands and embrace each other, knowing we can do more for each other together than we can apart.

Article link: http://www.nowpublic.com/world/cuba-si-saudi-arabia-no