The embargo against Cuba will be gone within a couple of years

[cali]

When you have people like Enzi introducing (along with Dodd, Luger and Dorgan)a bill to allow U.S. citizens to travel freely to Cuba, you know the writings on the wall- whatever Joe Biden said last week.

http://www.reuters.com/article/joeBiden/idUSN3142346320090331

[Warpy]

1. It outlived any usefulness it might have had 30 years ago

and has made this country look just plain stupid ever since then.

The embargo failed many years ago but it was a bad habit maintained by GOPs at the State Department because Batista Cubans voted GOP.

Nobody wanted to take responsibility for admitting it had failed. Nobody wanted to try a carrot to moderate the worst parts of Cuban Communism once the stick had failed.

I sincerely hope it's ended, the sooner the better. I've known a lot of Cubans over the years and the pain of separation from their extended families has been terrible.

It's time to grow up and let go of a bad habit.

[Mika]

10. Please explain what "usefulness it might have had 30 years ago".

You also say that the embargo "failed". Just what would success have looked like? America? Iraq?

Please explain so I can get an understanding of what you (and so many others) mean when they say what you've posted.

Thanks. :hi:

[Warpy]

11. The Cuban Missile Crisis was in 1962.

The embargo was maintained for many years afterward to prevent a repeat of it. While I am unconvinced it had any effect (reread: "usefulness it might have had, weasel words are important ones), that is the rationale for maintaining it for at least the next decade and a half.

[Mika]

13. How on earth could the embargo prevent a repeat of the Cuban (Soviet, actually) missile crisis?

I don't follow your reasoning. Care to expand a little?

Thanks :hi:

[Warpy]

14. Read the words in the parentheses

Thank you.

[Mika]

15. I'm asking about your words that aren't in parentheses.

"The Cuban Missile Crisis was in 1962.

The embargo was maintained for many years afterward to prevent a repeat of it"

Where did you get this, or learn this? I've never heard that rationale before. Did you make it up?


Cheers.

[hendo]

16. I believe the thought with the embargo was

to express our anger at Castro without resorting to a war. We could just as easily launched a full assault to overthrow Castro like we did in Vietnam (yes i know that we came to the aid of France), Korea (I know it was more complicated than that), and Afghanistan (yes, I know that we weren't trying to depose a leader in Afghanistan, and it was a covert operation supporting the Afghani people in their fight against the Soviet Union).

Just be glad that we issued sanctions instead of going to war.

besides, we should still allow Cuban Cigars in the US, because in the immortal words of William Crowe, after he was questioned about his stash of Cuban cigars, "When I was in the military I always made it my first mission to burn the enemy's crops!"

[Mika]

17. An embargo is an act of war.

To say I should be glad for the US embargo instead of going to war misses the mark. I have family in Cuba, and their lives have been made much more difficult because of the US's extra territorial sanctions.

The whole situation stinks. There is no justification for the US's century+ of imperialist aggression against Cuba. How anyone uses your twisted justification is simply beyond reason.

The Breckenridge Memorandum

we must clean up the country, even if this means using the methods Divine Providence used on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

We must destroy everything within our cannons’ range of fire. We must impose a harsh blockade so that hunger and its constant companion, disease, undermine the peaceful population and decimate the Cuban army. The allied army must be constantly engaged in reconnaissance and vanguard actions so that the Cuban army is irreparably caught between two fronts and is forced to undertake dangerous and desperate measures.

-
To sum up, our policy must always be to support the weaker against the stronger, until we have obtained the extermination of them both, in order to annex the Pearl of the Antilles {Cuba}.

J.C. Breckenridge, U.S. Undersecretary of War in 1897

[hendo]

20. big difference between an embargo and a blockade

I don't really need to explain that to you, do i? An embargo is NOT an act of war, it is a diplomatic means of avoiding war.

[yy4me]

2. About time, this embargo has been a waste for more years

than I can remember.

[angstlessk]

3. the embargo has succeeded in one important way...it kept Castro in power

so it was not all bad?

[hendo]

5. that was sarcasm about Castro, right?

Or, do you honestly like that he was in power?

[angstlessk]

7. did not forget the 'sarcasm' thingy...I think he is much better than the regime that existed before

him...sorry, and when I see how integrated Cuba is I find that refreshing.

[hendo]

4. awesome

I would love to be able to pick up cuban cigars in the US. I have also wanted to vacation there for a few years.

[jmg257]

6. Yea, Habana cigars!

[backscatter712]

8. Works for me. The Cold War's been over for almost two decades.

The Cuba Embargo is truly pointless.

[Delphinus]

9. Glad to hear it.

Way past time.

[ContinentalOp]

12. Amazing news.

This will be good for both of our economies. I can't wait to visit.

[Mika]

19. The tourism destinations in the US don't think lifting the sanctions will be good for biz.

That is why Disney and other US theme parks lobby hard against lifting the travel sanctions. Their business will plummet for several years if travel sanctions are lifted because it is estimated that many millions of Americans will travel to Cuba to explore a new tourist haven. The same goes for the cruise industry, US gambling industries, tourist destinations all over the US will suffer from losses of American travelers. This applies also to the other Caribbean tourism destinations (Bahamas, Jamaica, Cayman, etc).

All of these aforementioned tourism businesses spend large amounts of money lobbying for the continuation of the US gov travel ban on American's travel to Cuba. I wish that more DUers understood this, instead of thinking that its just a few hundred thousand MiamiCubans who control US/Cuba travel policy.

[hendo]

21. thank you Captain Obvious

There is the simple fact though that people can take a roadtrip to florida, whereas they would have to fly to Cuba.

Either way, it is a good thing in the end.

[Mika]

22. So, Orlando would do just fine w/o an airport then.

Thank you for your impudent point. :dunce:L

[hendo]

23. the orlando airport is for more than tourism

A majority of the people who fly every day do so for work.

[lonestarnot]

18. Here's to Cuban rum!

:donut: