¡Viva Cuba!

[Zongxian]

I have to give major credit to President Obama... he has achieved something that no one thought would happen any time soon. Relations with Cuba are being normalized and a stupidly short-sighted and outdated embargo is being phased out! This is a great moment for foreign relations in the Americas.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/17/politics/ ... ?hpt=hp_t1

And certain figures among the pro-embargo minority can complain all they want; it only shows their lack of diplomatic skill and ability to engage in dialogue. The embargo continued to fail, even after the collapse of the USSR. They like to go on about freedom and democracy; but if anything will make freedom and democracy more likely in Cuba, it will be open relations and trade with the US. The capabilities of soft power are unmatched.

[Siggon Kristov]

I have to give major credit to President Obama...

I give major credit to myself and DiploKemz18


Just kidding...

Nothing has earned my respect for Obama like the news headlines today.
This is being celebrated in my party in Jamaica.

[Doc]

I fully support the return to normal diplomatic relations. I'm counting the seconds until the howl on the right begins about how he is not enforcing Helms-Burton. 3... 2....

[Afrocentric]

Great...we are negotiating with Communists now. Nice going Obama. How is it a man who had the balls to depose Ghadaffi and support an invasion on Syria, can sit there and claim he wants to enter into relations with these people? Hello!!! Cuba is the enemy, not an ally.

What does that country have to offer anyway? Besides being backwards in all facets of society, they are Communist. Why engage them in the first place? Just wait for both Castros to die off and then put a US backed leader in place so we can have regime change and open that dump up to the rest of the world.

We should have kept Cuba and made it something similar to Puerto Rico...of course the posters to the left of me like this; they want to see the US become a Communist country and think Cuba is a "utopia". It's such a utopia that people escape it year after year for the good ole US of A.

[Zongxian]

Great...we are negotiating with Communists now. Nice going Obama. How is it a man who had the balls to depose Ghadaffi and support an invasion on Syria, can sit there and claim he wants to enter into relations with these people? Hello!!! Cuba is the enemy, not an ally.

What does country have to offer anyway? Besides being backwards in all facets of society, they are Communist. Why engage them I the first place? Just wait for both Castros to die off and then put a US backed leader in place so we can have regime change and open that dump up to the rest of the world.

Should have kept Cuba and made it something similar to Puerto Rico...of course the Posters to the left of me like this; they want to see the US become a Communist country and think Cuba is a "utopia".

I'll borrow from Obama's (and others') statement, though this is something I've been saying myself for a long time, too... We have, for a long time, been engaging in relations with the "communists" of Vietnam and China. Nixon opened to China, and eventually liberalizations occurred in the 1990s, ending the Maoist era and orienting China to be integrated with the global capitalist market. And we've been open to Vietnam for a similar amount of time, with our relations further strengthening during the Presidency of George W. Bush. And there's also Laos, too.

Cuba is not an enemy. It is absurd how antiquated of an idea that is. The entire basis of that designation is out of a Cold War fetish held by the pro-embargo crowd. They're obsessed with maintaining the image of "communist baddies" who are out to destroy our way of life. Cuba has changed a lot since 1960; as all countries have. Cuba does nothing to be an enemy of the US. They are plotting terror against Floridians or trying to assassinate our politicians. Sure, their human rights record isn't all that rosy, but neither are the records of dozens of other countries that we hold diplomatic relations with. Hell, look at Saudi Arabia; it's a slave state and theocracy.

There is no reason for hostility with Cuba in the 21st Century. It is in the interest of pan-American relations that the US engage with Cuba just as it does with other American nations. An open relationship with Cuba better serves the regional economy and it fosters a stronger overall diplomatic climate in the Americas. Considering that the US is a part of the Americas, we should probably try to have good relations with our continental neighbors...it's only logical.

[Siggon Kristov]

What does that country have to offer anyway? Besides being backwards in all facets of society, they are Communist. Why engage them in the first place?

If anything is backwards, it's a mid-20th century policy being retained with no justification.

Just wait for both Castros to die off

If you think "both Castros" are the only things holding the revolution in power, you don't know anything about Cuba. These 2 men can't just hold an entire country under their control. They had to have popular support for their revolution to work, and they had to have support from the rest of the party to remain at the top. The party didn't always agree with them on everything, and the Castro brothers had to stand down sometimes. The party has the power, not the 2 individuals you focus on. Cuba doesn't even have a Presidential system. The President is merely the head of a 7-member executive with 6 Vice Presidents.

and then put a US backed leader in place so we can have regime change and open that dump up to the rest of the world.

The world is not about you and your pompous country.
Out of curiosity anyway, you want to put a US-backed leader, how, exactly? Coup? Rigging elections?
The USA has been trying regime change in Cuba for over half a century. They have miserably failed to achieve that.

[Afrocentric]

I'll take your word for it...but I still feel this is dangerous. One minute you're being nice to Communists and the next, you become one.

Not saying the US will become Communist, but still...

[Siggon Kristov]

I'll take your word for it...but I still feel this is dangerous. One minute you're being nice to Communists and the next, you become one.

Your country didn't have a problem being nice to the Taliban in the 1980s. Did it make Reagan a Taliban?

[Doc]

I'll take your word for it...but I still feel this is dangerous. One minute you're being nice to Communists and the next, you become one.

Your country didn't have a problem being nice to the Taliban in the 1980s. Did it make Reagan a Taliban?

No, it made him a Contra...

[Siggon Kristov]

I'll take your word for it...but I still feel this is dangerous. One minute you're being nice to Communists and the next, you become one.

Your country didn't have a problem being nice to the Taliban in the 1980s. Did it make Reagan a Taliban?

No, it made him a Contra...

And that reminds me of something different. I met some Sandinistas in September last year. The USA had sponsored instability in countries like Jamaica, Nicaragua and Angola, and still sponsors instability in Venezuela. This comes at the expense of the well-being of individual humans' lives.