They say timing is everything in the world of politics- President Barack Obama's announcement that the US and Castro's Cuba will resume diplomatic(and possibly trade ) relations could not have come at a more propitious time; amongst other things, the power of the "Miami mafia" of rabidly anti- Communist Cuban emigres is on the wane, allies( including the UK) ask why it's all right to trade with China and Vietnam but NOT Cuba?
Predictably the "wingnut right" freaks out, screeching "betrayal"( and conveniently ignoring thef act the whole Cuban embargo business has been a dismal failure, but then the American right wing has gotten practically EVERY issue of consequence in the 20th century ass backwards- from the decision to enter WWII( as late as 1940, the Republican Party proposed isolationism despite the looming threat to Western liberty and freedom from the Axis powers), wrong on the Cold War( they wanted to "roll back the Iron Curtain" by force of arms rather settle for the more gradual policy of containment-which ulitmately prevailed with every President from Harry S.Truman to George H.W.Bush), wrong on Vietnam, detente with the USSR, climate change, the ICC.
Just one question for the opponents of normalization- should the US continue to pursue a manifestly failed policy just to pander to a bunch of aging Cuban exiles- one that only the US itself and a handful of other nations( Israel and a few islands dependent on AMerican aid)- not even us Brits- support at the UN where an overwhelming majoirty of the world regularly votes in favour of dropping the embargo.
To write these things does not of course mean that I am some kind of starry eyed "useful idiot" of the Castro regime(see my previous posts in favour of Cuba's dissidents- "Los Damas de Blanco"- the "Ladies In White"). The real irony is that the very people who opposed detente with the Soviet Union(which arguably helped bring down the Soviet monolith) are the same who oppose normalization with Cuba!
Anybody think as I do?
Terry
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