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Saturday, May 24, 2008

Isolate Or Negotiate

Cuba: Isolate Or Negotiate

It looks like the question whether the U.S. should engage or isolate
hostile states is here to stay. First it was Iran, now it's Cuba. John
McCain attacked Barack Obama for stating that he would negotiate with
the Cuban government if necessary. McCain vowed to keep the American
trade embargo in place, if elected. Obama fired back that McCain was
merely continuing President George W. Bush's failed policy.

Who's right? Probably both candidates would say that their goal is to
topple the Castro-led regime and to establish a democratic Cuba with
free and fair elections. The U.S. trade embargo has been in effect now
for almost 50 years. During that time no negotiations between a U.S.
president and Fidel, or now Raul, Castro took place. In essence, John
McCain's current stance toward Cuba has been carried out for almost five
decades. The result? The Castro clan still rules the island, democracy
is still absent, as are freedom of the press and other basic human rights.

So Barack Obama is correct that the policy of economic embargo and
political isolation has failed to achieve its intended goal. What he
conveniently left out is that it's not all George W. Bush's fault, but
that this stance has been a pillar of American foreign policy for close
to 50 years regardless whether a Democrat or Republican was in the White
House.

What's more, if Obama believes that this policy has failed, one would
think he would reverse the course. But all that he has said on the issue
until now is that he would allow Cuban-Americans to send money and visit
relatives, and that he would be willing to meet with Cuba's leaders.
Letting people wire money and visit Cuba is a far cry from lifting the
economic embargo. Today, President Bush announced that he would allow
Cuban-Americans to mail cell phones to relatives. It seems like Obama –
despite his rhetoric – may be continuing Bush's Cuba policy after all.

http://blogs.dw-world.de/acrossthepond/michael/1.6468.html

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