Friends- Bomb.Today, Barak Obama blasted President Bush saying he "substitutes posturing for serious policy -- and we have seen too much of that over the past six years."
Foes- Coddle.
Evidently, freeing 50 million people from two of the world's most brutal regimes is not enough for the freshman senator of Illinois.
So, in order to change all of that, Barak plans on sending cash and sitting down for talks with whoever's in charge on the Island Paradise. Barak thinks a little coddling is the thing to do to get the ruthless dictatorship to open up to democratic reform. Here is Barak at the Miami Herald:
Accordingly, I will grant Cuban Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send remittances to the island.Gee, that ought to help passify the evil motives of the monsters in charge.
But as we reach out in some ways now, it makes strategic sense to hold on to important inducements we can use in dealing with a post-Fidel government, for it is an unfortunate fact that his departure by no means guarantees the arrival of freedom on the island.
Bilateral talks
Accordingly, I will use aggressive and principled diplomacy (talk) to send an important message: If a post-Fidel government begins opening Cuba to democratic change, the United States (the president working with Congress) is prepared to take steps to normalize relations and ease the embargo that has governed relations between our countries for the last five decades.
The Cuban-Americans at Babalu are not amused.
Either is Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who said, via Babalu:
"It's sadly interesting that some who had spoken so passionately and loudly in favor of a strong and international full embargo against the horrible apartheid government in South Africa and the despotic military junta in Haiti now wish to economically engage with the brutal Castro communist regime. Are the Cuban people less deserving of freedom, human rights and equality?"
Yeah, that embargo has worked really well to free the Cuban people.
ReplyDelete++
ReplyDeletealbeit from Wikipedia, here ya go anyways..
United States embargo against Cuba
excerpts:
[The United States embargo against Cuba (described in Cuba as el bloqueo, Spanish for "the blockade") is an economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed on Cuba on February 7, 1962. The embargo was enacted after the Castro regime confiscated the properties of United States citizens and corporations (notably those that belonged to the United Fruit Company and the ITT).
The embargo was codified into law in 1992 with the stated purpose of bringing democracy to the Cuban people, and in fact is entitled the Cuban Democracy Act. In 1996 Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act which further restricted United States citizens from doing business in or with Cuba, and mandated restrictions on giving public or private assistance to any successor regime in Havana unless and until certain claims against the Cuban government are met. In 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton expanded the trade embargo even further by ending the practice of foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies trading with Cuba in dollar amounts totaling more than 700 million a year.
As of 2007, the embargo which limits American businesses from trading or conducting business with Cuban interests is still in effect, making it one of the few times in history that United States citizens have been restricted from doing business abroad, and is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history.[citation needed] Despite the existence of the embargo, it is worth noting that not all commerce from the United States to Cuba is restricted, as the United States is the fourth largest exporter to Cuba (mainly aid).[1]]
[In response to Cuba's alignment with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, President John F. Kennedy extended Eisenhower's measures by Executive Order, first widening the scope of the trade restrictions on February 7 (announced on February 3) and again on March 23, 1962. (According to former aide Pierre Salinger, Kennedy asked him to purchase thousands of Cuban cigars for Kennedy's future use immediately before the extended embargo was to come into effect.)[citation needed] Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy imposed travel restrictions on February 8, 1963, and the Cuban Assets Control Regulations were issued on July 8, 1963, under the Trading with the Enemy Act in response to Cubans hosting Soviet nuclear weapons, which led to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Under these restrictions, Cuban assets in the U.S. were frozen and the existing restrictions were consolidated.]
==