Larry Wilkerson’s view on the subject.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12918
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/cuba-leaves-talks-us-ties-insisting-wont-major-224809935.html
Any thoughts? I was thinking, I told you so.
We’re friends with worse countries. Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, China, Pakistan.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/cuba-leaves-talks-us-ties-insisting-wont-major-224809935.html
Any thoughts? I was thinking, I told you so.[/quote]
First, just because Obama is a shitty negotiator doesn’t mean the policy of the last 50 years towards Cuba is a good one. It just means Obama is terrible at dealing, which sould surprise nobody.
Secondly, there are some concessions I think we can make if we aren’t soft on negotiating and we get what we want. Taking Cuba off the state terrorist sponsor list, for instance. We already kniw other countries that are at least as shady as Cuba that are NOT on this list…because of things we want to get from our relationship with them. It is therefore reasonable that we are open to taking Cuba off the list. Yes, even though we know that they are shady…provided we get good deals on our negotiations.
[quote]Sifu wrote:
This is an awful betrayal of the Cuban people. But not a surprise with a Marxist sympathizer President. The policy of containment has been in place for fifty years for good reason. Cuba is a threat to freedom in this hemisphere. It has only been a couple of months since we had mass protests in Venezuela that were violently put down by government troops who were led by Cubans. These are current events, not old history. One would have to be a complete idiot then to believe what Obama said that the policy is “outdated”.
We are near the end of a process that has taken fifty years to complete in our favor. The biological clock of the Castro regime is finally running out. We haven’t heard or seen Fidel in a while and Raul isn’t much younger. What Obama is doing is throwing the Castro’s successors a lifeline that will help them to consolidate power when the Castro’s are gone.
This is the tyranny that Obama is assisting.
Well, I was an ass-hair away from being born in Cuba. That is were my parents were headed when they managed to sneak in to the Canadian consulate at a refueling stop in Canada and declared asylum and were accepted.
The Cubans in America and Miami consider it a betrayal, yes they do, but it’s more of an emotional response than a rational response. They HATE Castro and his cronies and want to stick it to him anyway they can. I don’t blame them, they had everything stolen from them, they were driven out of their homes and suffered greatly. Many of them had family members who were imprisoned or even killed by the regime. I can hardly blame them for feeling the way they do. After all, I am technically one of them.
As far as I am concerned, the Castro’s should be strung up and skinned alive in Havana. They are murderers and oppressors. They are evil incarnate. The U.S. did do their best trying to assassinate Fidel, but he somehow managed to stay one step ahead of their attempts.
But the maintaining the embargo and moving forward with Cold War politics isn’t the best thing for U.S. interests and is not the best thing for the Cubans still in Cuba. I am all for a coup in Cuba, but I think the better way to achieve that now, is for relations to normalize. The people there are used to their lives, a whole generation has now grown up not knowing different. They need to know there is something better. That is what will stir the people up in Cuba. We need the Cubans to rise up and fight for their freedom, but they need to know such a thing exists too. We cannot change the government from the outside unless we want to start a war.
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/cuba-leaves-talks-us-ties-insisting-wont-major-224809935.html
Any thoughts? I was thinking, I told you so.[/quote]
First, just because Obama is a shitty negotiator doesn’t mean the policy of the last 50 years towards Cuba is a good one. It just means Obama is terrible at dealing, which sould surprise nobody.
Secondly, there are some concessions I think we can make if we aren’t soft on negotiating and we get what we want. Taking Cuba off the state terrorist sponsor list, for instance. We already kniw other countries that are at least as shady as Cuba that are NOT on this list…because of things we want to get from our relationship with them. It is therefore reasonable that we are open to taking Cuba off the list. Yes, even though we know that they are shady…provided we get good deals on our negotiations.
[/quote]
The US doesn’t need anything from Cuba. What do they produce? Sugarcane? Fancy cigars? There’s no reason to give them any “concessions” or begin a “dialogue” with them. There’s nothing in it for the West.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/cuba-leaves-talks-us-ties-insisting-wont-major-224809935.html
Any thoughts? I was thinking, I told you so.[/quote]
First, just because Obama is a shitty negotiator doesn’t mean the policy of the last 50 years towards Cuba is a good one. It just means Obama is terrible at dealing, which sould surprise nobody.
Secondly, there are some concessions I think we can make if we aren’t soft on negotiating and we get what we want. Taking Cuba off the state terrorist sponsor list, for instance. We already kniw other countries that are at least as shady as Cuba that are NOT on this list…because of things we want to get from our relationship with them. It is therefore reasonable that we are open to taking Cuba off the list. Yes, even though we know that they are shady…provided we get good deals on our negotiations.
[/quote]
The US doesn’t need anything from Cuba. What do they produce? Sugarcane? Fancy cigars? There’s no reason to give them any “concessions” or begin a “dialogue” with them. There’s nothing in it for the West.
[/quote]
No, of course we don’t. We’ve prospered while they haven’t. But are you really suggesting we keep a failed policy simply because “we don’t need anything from them”?
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/cuba-leaves-talks-us-ties-insisting-wont-major-224809935.html
Any thoughts? I was thinking, I told you so.[/quote]
First, just because Obama is a shitty negotiator doesn’t mean the policy of the last 50 years towards Cuba is a good one. It just means Obama is terrible at dealing, which sould surprise nobody.
Secondly, there are some concessions I think we can make if we aren’t soft on negotiating and we get what we want. Taking Cuba off the state terrorist sponsor list, for instance. We already kniw other countries that are at least as shady as Cuba that are NOT on this list…because of things we want to get from our relationship with them. It is therefore reasonable that we are open to taking Cuba off the list. Yes, even though we know that they are shady…provided we get good deals on our negotiations.
[/quote]
The US doesn’t need anything from Cuba. What do they produce? Sugarcane? Fancy cigars? There’s no reason to give them any “concessions” or begin a “dialogue” with them. There’s nothing in it for the West.
[/quote]
No, of course we don’t. We’ve prospered while they haven’t. But are you really suggesting we keep a failed policy simply because “we don’t need anything from them”?
[/quote]
I don’t think it is a failed policy. The embargo isolates Cuba from the US market and is serving to contain them to some extent and diminish their economy.
A few weeks ago an article was linked to on Drudge detailing Cuba’s extensive efforts to recruit activists, academics, journalists and spies in the US. They’re still a hostile and despotic regime. If they improve their human rights record and stop undermining the interests of the US then I have no problem lifting the embargo. But they haven’t done that. Obama went to them unilaterally offering concessions and they told him to get lost as I said they would.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/012915-737052-castro-issues-demands-for-normalizing-relations-with-us.htm
[/quote]
Once again, I know Obama is a shit negotiator. He’s horrendous. I know this. And there is no reason on God’s good earth why Castro should be making demands to us now (clearly I am prepared to accept bluster on the part of a dictator…because they always bluster and demand regardless to keep their country under their thumb).
However, just the fact that Obama is shitting the bed doesn’t mean the policy idea itself of normalization is bad.
I will say I really didn’t think he could screw this up that badly when he announced intentions…but then I was foolish to be an optimist.