Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
12 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Obama's remarks in Cuba today were absolutely perfect. (Original Post) Vattel Mar 2016 OP
More and more every day I know how much I will miss him katmondoo Mar 2016 #1
I guess I have a slightly different perspective. Vattel Mar 2016 #2
What does he mean when he says '50 years of embargo didn't work', what does "didn't work" mean? Mika Mar 2016 #3
I see your point. Vattel Mar 2016 #7
It didn't work to normalize relations with Cuba gratuitous Mar 2016 #8
Actually they weren't TlalocW Mar 2016 #4
I bet someone is gonna take your post seriously and alert it.... PersonNumber503602 Mar 2016 #5
lol, I missed that Vattel Mar 2016 #6
Lol GOLGO 13 Mar 2016 #12
He was able to be sensitive and agreeable flamingdem Mar 2016 #9
He is really skilled at diplomacy. Vattel Mar 2016 #10
aarg, I wish flamingdem Mar 2016 #11

katmondoo

(6,454 posts)
1. More and more every day I know how much I will miss him
Mon Mar 21, 2016, 03:42 PM
Mar 2016

It will be hard, I don't see anyone that really is above him. So thankful for the last 7 years.

 

Vattel

(9,289 posts)
2. I guess I have a slightly different perspective.
Mon Mar 21, 2016, 03:50 PM
Mar 2016

I was not happy with his first term. But I think he has done a great job his second term. He has let his own values and judgment determine his decision-making, and that has served him well. If the next President is Trump or Clinton, I am sure I will miss him.

 

Mika

(17,751 posts)
3. What does he mean when he says '50 years of embargo didn't work', what does "didn't work" mean?
Mon Mar 21, 2016, 04:50 PM
Mar 2016

I hear variations on that used by everyone who supports the change in tactic.

What is it that the continuum of administration after administration -many using military assaults, biological warfare, terrorism, and all using sanctions - has wanted to work or accomplish? Clearly, considering the long standing record of US/Cuba history and the valiant defense by Cubans to this day, it has not been something that Cubans wanted.

I'm just suspicious of this language of "the old way didn't work (on usurping the Cuban vastly popular revolution, now the Government of Cuba), so we're going to change tactics" (connoting a new methodology of usurping the Cuban vastly popular revolution, now the Government of Cuba).

Otherwise, I am cautiously optimistic. Glad our President has made this move. As are most all of my friends and mi familia in Cuba.






 

Vattel

(9,289 posts)
7. I see your point.
Mon Mar 21, 2016, 07:11 PM
Mar 2016

To be charitable, he mostly seemed to be saying that the embargo didn't benefit the United States or Cuba. What I liked was that even as he emphasized respect for freedom of speech and other basic political rights, he conceded that the US may not be fully respecting rights such as the right to adequate healthcare.

gratuitous

(82,849 posts)
8. It didn't work to normalize relations with Cuba
Mon Mar 21, 2016, 07:12 PM
Mar 2016

I think that's what's being said, anyway. For more than 50 years, our relations with Cuba have been dictated by a coterie of Cuban expatriates who demanded the toppling of the Castro regime. Fidel Castro outlived just about all of them, contributing to their bitterness at being driven out of their country.

These folks are not done complaining yet, over the least little thing:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/15032737/historic-game-cuba-ignores-pain-many-people-endured

The "new way" seems to be to ignore - at long last - the expatriate community in South Florida, or at least to balance our relations with Cuba by taking into account the opinions of the other 300 million people in the United States. My reading of the new way is that these expatriates seem torn between the bitter struggle they lost and the prospect that relations with Cuba could get back on solid footing, which would make their pain or suffering or loss meaningless.

Pain, suffering and loss are invested with only as much meaning as the sufferer can instill in it. Nobody else is required to find any meaning in another's loss (which, I hasten to add, doesn't mean that others can't or shouldn't find meaning). But that demand for meaning has driven our country's policy for more than half a century. It's become family legacy, no more present for the vast majority of present-day Americans than Hoovervilles or the Dust Bowl.

TlalocW

(15,359 posts)
4. Actually they weren't
Mon Mar 21, 2016, 06:33 PM
Mar 2016

He said that his being in Cuba signified a new day... Una nueva dia. It should have been, "Un nuevo dia."

Ima voting for Trump now.

TlalocW

flamingdem

(39,304 posts)
9. He was able to be sensitive and agreeable
Mon Mar 21, 2016, 07:17 PM
Mar 2016

He's won the hearts of the Cubans and I think Raul Castro likes him a lot!!!

 

Vattel

(9,289 posts)
10. He is really skilled at diplomacy.
Mon Mar 21, 2016, 07:43 PM
Mar 2016

I know he wouldn't take the job, but he would be a killer SOS.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Obama's remarks in Cuba t...