The Obama administration should quickly try and engage the Cuban government in diplomacy and set up a working agreement to end the economic embargo of Cuba. This should be done as soon as possible. There are strategic reasons for this. Cuba is a member of our hemisphere and as such, should be a close trading partner, friend and ally. The forty plus years of embargo has not resulted in reversing Cuba's human rights problem nor has it changed their communist form of government.
The U.S. trades with Russia and China and has diplomatic relations with those two countries. They have their own human rights problems and are not even close to being in our hemisphere so our chances of influence on their human rights problem are nill. On the other hand, Cuba being only 90 miles from our shore and within our hemisphere would be in a more reasonable position to be influenced. I don't mean being influenced in a colonial way but the normal influence that neighbors are exposed too.
Cuba and the U.S. could help each others economy in a meaningful way and especially for the mid continent region of the U.S. The embargo has left the Cuban people with only the bare necessities. Cuba is no military threat to the U.S. or its neighbors. Being an island is not a strategic position for Cuba to be in militarily. Plus the U.S. has a military presence on that island at Guantanamo Bay.
The U.S. has missed many years of opportunity with Cuba because of an embargo that has never accomplished what it set out to do and all those years, lost what could have been a partner. The time to move is now and the U.S. should make the first move.
No comments :
Post a Comment