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TechnoratiFor nearly five decades, the United States has pursued a policy toward Cuba that could be described as incredibly stupid.
It could also be called childish, irresponsible and counterproductive -- and, since the demise of the Soviet Union, even insane. Absent the threat of communist expansionism, the refusal by successive American presidents to engage with Cuba has not even a fig leaf's worth of rationale to cover its naked illogic. Other than providing Fidel Castro with a convenient antagonist to help him whip up nationalist fervor on the island -- and thus prolong his rule -- the U.S. trade embargo and other sanctions have accomplished precisely nothing.
Now, with Fidel ailing and his brother Raul acting large and in charge, the United States has its best opportunity in years to influence the course of events on the island. George W. Bush, as one might have expected, won't do the right thing. It will be up to the next president.
Raul Castro is 76, just five years younger than his more charismatic brother, and since assuming the presidency he has acted as if he knows he doesn't have much time to waste. In short order, he has repealed restrictions that prohibited Cubans from buying personal computers, cell phones and other consumer goods -- items that Fidel feared might facilitate sedition or, at a minimum, promote counterrevolutionary comfort and lassitude.
It's true that these measures are largely symbolic -- on an average salary of about $17 a month, most Cubans can't dream of buying a computer, and in any event the Cuban government still strictly controls access to the Internet. Likewise, any Cuban who owns a cell phone can't use it without paying the astronomical rates demanded by Cubacel, the government cell-phone monopoly.
But at the same time, Raul has encouraged the first stirrings of debate in the government-controlled media (which are the only media) -- something Fidel never would have allowed. Rumors that the government will soon permit widespread private ownership of automobiles, and perhaps even allow an aboveboard private market in real estate, seem much less implausible than they would have just six months ago.
I've been to Cuba as a journalist 10 times, and friends on the island-including some harsh critics of the Castro regime -- say that there is real optimism about the prospects for change.
Bush's response has been a cold shoulder. In remarks a few days ago, the president did little but state the obvious fact that Raul Castro is not, and never will be, a believer in democracy. He dismissed the recent measures as "empty gestures at reform," and then proceeded to make an empty gesture of his own: He said he would change U.S. policy to allow Cuban-Americans to send cell phones to their relatives on the island, which is something many families already have done.
Raul Castro is not going to transform Cuba into a free-market democracy. But he gives every indication of moving at least some distance down the path that China's leadership has taken, toward becoming a free-market, one-party autocracy. That's certainly not a perfect outcome, as shown by recent events in Tibet. But it's impossible to deny that the Chinese people enjoy far greater personal freedom than they did, say, 20 years ago. Why wouldn't Washington want to encourage Havana to become more like Beijing?
That would require actual engagement with the Cuban government, though, and Bush doesn't intend to allow anything of the sort.
On Friday, Barack Obama appeared before the Cuban American National Foundation -- one of the most powerful and most strident of the Miami-based anti-Castro groups -- and said that if he were elected president he would conduct "direct diplomacy" with Cuba's leadership. Earlier in the week, John McCain spoke to an audience in Miami and essentially vowed to continue Bush's hard-line course.
Obama's into-the-lion's-den performance may win him some points for bravery, but may not get him a lot of votes in south Florida. He has the right idea, however. The United States can attempt to influence any changes that eventually take place in Cuba, or it can harrumph from the sidelines. Several of Cuba's leading dissidents have urged the White House to end the decades-old trade embargo and the draconian restrictions on travel to the island. Bush pays no attention to those on the front lines of this struggle.
Stubbornly sticking with a policy that has achieved nothing in nearly 50 years is a pretty good definition of insanity.
Eugene Robinson's e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com.
© 2008, Washington Post Writers Group
47 Comments so far
Show AllRockerbabe, I am with you on that! The US needs to stop kowtowing to those criminals!
You want a sane Cuba policy, then get the Miami, FL Cuban out of the picture or get a backbone and stand up to the thugs in south Florida.
And here is my thumbnail sketch of what our Cuba-policy ought to be. Remove all restrictions on trade, travel, and transfer of dollars. Sit back and observe what develops in Cuba. Do not demand or urge talks on a Cuban government. If the Cuban government asks us to talk answer: fine, let's talk how to eradicate poverty, hunger, and disease in the world. That's all folks! Not one of the three wannabes seems to get it. The problem I have with the Democrats is that they apparently want to replace the hard-sell imperialism of Bush with their brand of soft-sell imperialism. Good luck America!
I have stopped submitting comments to Truthdig, Huffington Post, and all other blog sites which are rife with character assassination and vile language. Common Dreams appears to be free of this fascistic infection.
"United States has its best opportunity in years to influence the course of events on the island"
Wow , only one poster picked up on this arrogant statement by Eugene Robinson . Generally speaking , America's foreign policy is a twisted " Midas Touch " : everything it touches turns to blood and shit .
Why would Eugenic Eugene's " best opportunity..." be any different?
Kindergarten Diplomancy 100 , an elementary course that America has failed ever since its own inception . Clean up your own sandbox first before trying to "help" your neighbour to do his or hers .
I do know about the medical and the altruism... Castro being willing to send medics in to New Orleans after Katrina. I'll bet if I can get my tarot cards through customs I'd not need to spend a cent, just do readings and people will invite me over for meals. Works for me. I have no interest in buying anything... just seeing the place.
Snorkeling off The Cayman Islands and a little island off the Puerto Rico shore, Culebra, is amazing, wild worlds of wonder open. It truly is a beautiful planet and touching these magnificent places reinforces our desire as progressives to PRESERVE the land and the PEACE for not only ourselves, but our children's children's children.
XNTRK: I lived in Puerto Rico for 9 years and have many Latin friends, a few are Cuban. I speak enough spanish to get by, and I also know people in Key West who have gone to Cuba that route, others via Mexico. I'll have to remember about cash... I seldom have more than $20 on me! It would be neat to go for my birthday this year. Wonder if I can swing that?
Siouxrose,
Do your homework, and go. Forget most of the Caribbean Isles, and Canada - They report to HLS. But it's not that difficult, just expensive. The other difficulty is no access to US funds once you are there, so bring cash - preferably Loonies - and more then you think you'll need. I researched for about a year before going - Now I am hoping to go back...
My observations were that the Cubans are not too interested in a market economy. They'd like more stuff, but not at the cost of the gains their society has made in the past 50 years. Remember, the Cubans who are not happy leave. The ones who stay, stay because they like it there.
Oh, they are also Patriots and Nationalists, so I don't think they would roll over now any more then they did during the Bay of Pigs.
Did you know they have sent over 45,000 medical professionals to at least that many countries in the past 45 years [first graduating class, 1965]. They just sent a team plus a couple of emergency hospitals to the Chinese quake victims. Then there are the 16,000 educators...
Sure as hell beats sending 300,000 military personnel to fight a couple of wars in the Mid-East, with no intention of ever leaving!
A few points:
1. The first person to point out that the embargo benefited Cuba was Ricardo Alarcon (presently President of Cuba's National Assembly) who, along about 1980, noted that the embargo had forced Cuba to develop such industry as it had, because they couldn't just import from the US and, second, it limited their corruption, as the embargo required that cash resources be husbanded carefully. In the 21st century, it has become clear that there were two other benefits: Cuba couldn't get into the kind of debt trouble that other countries had, as the US prevented international bodies from lending to them, and the embargo saved Cuba from the ecological degradation and toxic clean-up costs brought by US-financed transnationals seeking to export their noxious production facilities to countries where the government shot anyone who complained.
2. The "we need to keep the embargo around to keep the Cubans in line" argument has been around forever. What it really means, though, particularly with the codification of the embargo through the passage of Helms-Burton, is that we have nothing to offer if we need something from them. The US has, in past, offered small concessions, which were followed by equal concessions from the Cuban government, only to have our concessions snatched away. They just don't trust our government, and there isn't any reason why they should.
3. Cubans have owned their own houses since the early 1960s. In fact, Cuba has the highest rate of homeownership in the hemisphere. Here's how it works: A Cuban family is allocated a housing unit. The "mortgage payment" is set at up to 10% of income (on a sliding scale). After 20 years the family owns the unit. A child or children can inherit, but no one is allowed to own more than one house. If a child wants to take over her parents' house, she turns her unit back to the government for re-allocation. If she doesn't want her parents' house, the government pays her a small sum and takes back the parents' house for re-allocation.
What should be clear here is that the government effectively eats the cost of housing. The payments don't come close to covering the cost of building and maintaining the units.
Robinson became confused when the Cuban government announced that military officers and sugar workers would be allowed to purchase houses owned by the army and the sugar operations. This is a tiny subset of the Cuban population.
4. According to the anti-Castro forces, Cuba has approximately 100 political prisoners. (The US has more political prisoners in Cuba than Cuba does.) Many of them were arrested in 2003, not for speaking or demonstrating, but for taking money from the US government. They had them cold--paymaster Marta Beatriz Roque depended on her secretary to keep records of the payments. The secretary turned out to be a Cuban government agent.
5. The function of the embargo has never been to moderate Cuba's behavior or to keep the south Floridans happy. The function of the embargo is to punish the Cuban people for supporting their government. Period.
It may come to pass within the next ten years or so that our government will figure out that the Cubans ain't never gonna cry "uncle."
Who wrote em? LOL
We are drifing off topic here. None of the candidates are going to do the right thing.
Oh Kem, every politician has to be a marvelous deceiver, it is the nature of the beast. You just prefer Hillary over Obama. I still think you should read his books. I dare you.
~Sphne~ where did you see where I mentioned Hillary or MCain? I said Obama is a marvelous deciever and he is.
El Bravo,
Tienes razon, pero eso no justifica el embargo de Estados Unidos. Si la gente en Cuba vive bajo tanta represion, pues ya se habrian rebelado o no? Sobre todo porque tienen el apoyo incondicional de los anti-castristas en Miami. Dudo mucho que el regimen de Castro pudiera detener una revolucion financiada por los Cubano-Americanos en Estados Unidos, sobre todo despues de que Cuba perdio el respaldo de la URSS.
There is something definitely worth emulating as per "The Latin connection," and by this I mean how Huga Chavez is linking up with other South American nations to create their own trade pacts and bases for borrowing $. Trading oil for medical assistance is a wonderful expansion on the concept of barter, something the World Bank and the "Washington Consensus" can't get its piece of the action on. This type of networking will prove the salvation to citizens of ALL nations, if they can come to this, as oil reserves fall and products become scarce. We either compete and harm each other or learn to live more simply and work together.
GOOD LUCK: Are you a US citizen? I'd love to go to Cuba. Not long ago (before Bush) journalists could get there from Key West, just about a 90 mile distance, but I understand it's much harder now with Homeland Security, etc. There was an article on CD about a woman writer or poet who went with her church group I believe it was, and she was retained for 10 hours at the airport, interogated, etc.
I have friends with speed boats in Key West who could do "it," but then there's the Coast Guard. I remember they'd tell me stories of the Turks and Cacos (? spelling) islands out in the middle of no where. Guess who put up a huge radio tower there? Christian Evangelicals... to be outside the US to send signals, right on an island notorious for drug deals and bounty exchanges. Alas, the pirates of the Caribbean do not exist just in fantasy... they have morphed into their 21st century versions.
They are all kowtowing to the Cuban lobby. The same way they kowtow to the Jewish vote in Florida. Ironically in a lot of ways Cuba is like Israel only in reverse with the Cuba refugees in this country as bitter and vengeful as the Palestinan refugees.
Kem Patrick, you kidding me? You really think Hilary and McCain are preferable to Obama? You dreaming.
Obama is right!! We need to bring Cuba back under our influence, like it was before Fidel -- then we can close all the schools and hospitals and reopen all the old saloons and whore houses!!
Obama, embargo, Raul, and what the rest of the world does is not as important as this: Fidel-less Cuba will have to learn to believe enough in its own revolutionary institutions in order for them to continue.
For most of the past 50 years the iron fist of Fidel has enforced revolutionary discipline, from now on neither it nor any other will do so. The imperialist US is betting that Cubanos can be bought off--I hope they are wrong. Viva Fidel, viva la Revolution.
What a self-righteous, ignorant little capitalist pundit you are, Mr Robinson!
You say "...it's impossible to deny that the Chinese people enjoy far greater personal freedom than they did, say, 20 years ago."
Which Chinese people, Mr Robinson? The peasants who are uprooted to make room for new industrial towns, KFCs and shopping malls, the children locked in factories for 14 hours a day, unable to escape even when their sweatshops catch fire and getting fined if they spend too much time in the toilet, or the mothers who are "encouraged" by their families to have several children, yet can be forcibly sterilized (even in their eighth month) if they have more than one?
Or do you mean the "free" workers in towns like Shenzhen, who live in the sight of more security cameras than exist in any other city on the planet. As Naomi Klein said in an article elsewhere on this site ( http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/15/8970/ ), "Remember how we've always been told that free markets and free people go hand in hand? That was a lie. It turns out that the most efficient delivery system for capitalism is actually a communist-style police state, fortressed with American "homeland security" technologies, pumped up with "war on terror" rhetoric."
Of course, you would be quite comfortable with the "Chinese Path," Mr Robinson. Your country looked on fondly while South Korea - to mention but one example - took the same direction, creating a small class of "free" Koreans - wealthy and beautiful women and men, clad in silk dresses or designer suits - while the majority laboured in inhuman conditions.
Doubtless, you can live with this, Mr Robinson, because the slave-labour of foreign workers produces your NIKEs and SUVs, your iPods and TVs. Doubtless, you and your well-fed cronies will also feel no concern when (to revisit Ms Klein's article) "the global corporations currently earning superprofits from this [Chinese] social experiment" bring it to your own country, because in the good ole USofA it will be tucked out of sight in immigrant communities or in other economically disadvantaged areas.
Oh, and Cuba may not be a paradise but I gather that it has a damn side better health system than you in the USA do!
Why should anyone expect Obama, Killary or McWacked to have been cut from different cloth than previous candidates and administrations?
Under the skin all three bleed the same capitalist drivel; the packaging of those candidates isn't all that different from, say, ads for breakfast cereals that make fantastic (unsupported by facts) claims of health and good nutrition yet in reality, are about as nutritious as eating cardboard!
Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Iraq all knew too much. We can not have relations with a country who might tell Americans the truth about our history. Our history is full of myths. The real history is something almost a polar opposite to what you believe. It's downright Orwellian.
Canadians have a nice island to overwinter thanks to America's insanity. In Canada only the money is Loonie.
America's Cuban policy is seen by much of the world to be that of an arrogant, self-righteous bully -- no more, no less.
Obama is a deciever and he is the best at it I have ever seen. He's the modern day Pied Piper.
C'mon Eugene, it's not accurate to state that US presidents have been "(s)tubbornly sticking with a policy that has achieved nothing in nearly 50 years", when this policy was designed to buy votes, and in particular Florida votes, and as a policy has worked out quite successfully. This policy has served up votes to successive presidential candidates since Kennedy. Yes, it is a cynical, counter-productive policy, when considering the interests of the nation as a whole, but vote-buying seldom involves considering the interests of the nation as a whole. You want Florida in your pocket? Then screw Cuba. This is also the same ploy that is used to buy Jewish votes, to the detriment of the greater interests of the United States.
While 'Robinson is better than most "journalist" mist of the comments are superior to his comments. Robinson says he has been to ''cuba 10 times, but I am afraid he has missed most of the Cban reality. Cubans have had cell phones for years, although they are expensive. The internet is open, and has been, for many years. It was true that in the past, users of the internet had to give their i.d. when buying a card to use the internet, but that ended years ago. Cubans had computers before Raul, and DVDs. Some reports in other media have also contended that 'cubans could not buy T.V.s or air conditioners. Not true. The Cuban government exchanged new air conditioners for old ones about two years ago, as they did for washing machines and frigs. Rice cookers and pressure cookers were sold to 'cubans for less than 20 dolllars, and gave them years to pay. Cubans own their own houses, and many pay less than a dollar a month for the mortage, owed to a bank. One can exchange a house, and there is a market in housing, contrary to Robinson. And owning cars? Who does Robinson thinks own those thousands of old U.S. cars that are used for taxis and personal cars? They, like other cars, are bought and sold by people.
Overall Robinson, as many others, have missed the point about Cuba and consumer goods. Cuba has had an enormous energy shortage; now that Venezuela trades oil for other goods and services, energy is now more plentiful and so are consumer goods that required energy. Obama probably will not be much different b ut not much other choice.
I was pretty disgusted at Obamas condemnation of Cuba - citing political prisoners etc.
How dare anyone in the senate or congress accuse Castro about policy before they adress Guananamo.
While I sincerely hope Obama is elected, that sort of statement hints that Obama may hold the same imperialistic views that makes the rest of world despise the US.
If not, then he is pandering to voters in a way that implies that at best, the next election will just lead to more of the same old, same old
That's funny ~Good Luck~ "No Americans" that's why you go there. Great idea.
Our president shoud go visit Fidel Castro while he's stiill living and on bended knee beg forgivness and ask if there is anything at all we could do to make up for our wrongs. We could statrt by returning the airliner we confiscated from him years ago, or better yet offer a brand new one from the presidential fleet.
Had we acted properly, like a world power should have, the Cuban Missile Crisis would never have occurred. Damn, we came wihtin ten minutes of Armageddon that time.
OIL!!!!!!!!! Oops, ___ never mind.
"America's Insane Cuba Policy....... Stubbornly sticking with a policy that has achieved nothing in nearly 50 years is a pretty good definition of insanity."
We're a nation of morons and the insane. George Bush's two terms as president should validate that!
OIL wake up oil just off the coast of CUBA and it is driving the big oil companies wild that can't get to it. You will see it open up soon after the elction.
OB said he has no problem with american citizens going to CUBA.
PLEASE DON'T DO IT OB, THAT IS ONE REASON I SPEND 4 MONTHS A YEAR IN CUBA, NO AMERICANS
To quote another website (whatreallyhappened.org) This administration couldn't find a sane foreing policy with a flashlight in both hands.
Obama=McCain. The spin on this article is wrong. Obama said he would continue the illegal economic blockade there. Unlike Nader, both of these guys want to kowtow to the Cuban American lobby. That is wrong, morally and legally. We need to stop trying to promote terrorism against Cuba. You do that and their oppressive measures will fade away.
Mr. Robinson: look at the forest, not the trees.
During the Vietnam era, I often heard the phrase, "Kill a commie for Christ". The phrase didn't make any sense once I realized Christ is a communist.
I know the Obama supporters will hate me for this, but Obama wants to maintain the embargo. Meet the new boss same as the old boss. Keep that idiocy up Obama, and you will drive me into the arms of a third party candidate.
Cuba has worked through some incredible times. First Russia turns its back on them then America. Times were hard for sure but Fidel has outlasted how many Presidents and Prime Ministers around the world who have been against him?
The only reason CUBA has come back into the news is it has OIL
Is "free-market democracy" an oxymoron?
Once again Mr. Robinson demonstrates that he is the most sane voice (and one of the few with any claim to sanity) writing and speaking through the major corporate media today.
We have maintained the embargo for reasons of state, the state of Florida. If Florida hadn't more than doubled its electoral votes since 1960, the embargo would have ended more than a decade ago.
Castro ousted a corrupt leader and a government that was managed by our Mafia. Castro has been shunned and or attepted to be murdered by our presidents ever since. We boycotted their goods, refused to trade with them fairly and still we maintaned a militay base on their land. ____ Incredible.
It is little wonder Castro sought assistance from the Soviet Union so many years ago.
What should we expect from insane administrations? And Obama if elected will stay the course.
Absent the threat of communist expansionism…???
The greatest obstacle to world peace right now is the threat of AMERICAN expansionism!!!!
Y que importa que Fidel se retiro? Es todo siempre la misma mierda. Dictadura de derecha o dictadura de izquierda, lo mismo: un lugar donde uno esta atrapado y no puede irse libremente, donde no se puede hacer declaraciones contra el gobierno en las calles, donde si dices que eres un liberal o denuncias el gobierno de acusan de ser revolucionario ( como a Thomas Paine ) y despues te arrestan por ser supuestamente un " revolucionario " o, peor, un radical extremista " terrorista."...hm, interesante, es posible que algunas de estas cosas apliquen aqui bajo el gobierno de Bush. Hay que tener miedo.
Raul Castro is not going to transform Cuba into a free-market democracy.
And we all know how 'great' free-market democracies are for the average working stiff...
The more embargo, the more they will deal with other countries where a rapacious oligarchy is under democratic control. Maybe the embargo is a blessing in disguise.
Two things about this --
1) What is interesting about Obama's recent remarks on Cuba (in front of the CANF fanatics in Miami Friday) is NOT merely his intention to "conduct direct diplomacy" with Raul. Rather, it's that he vowed to continue the embargo. This is just the completely predictable caving in to the rightwing that you'd expect from a Democrat. It's stupid and cowardly. Obama is also moving rightwards about Israel/Palestine.
A much better article on this subject is "Is Obama Turning Right?" on CounterPunch today.
2) Eugene Robinson is a nice man and passes for a "liberal" (relative to the rest of the mainstream media). But this article demonstrates how limited the worldview of an American liberal really is. Despite Robinson's obvious dislike of Bush, he himself is unable to shake the belief that it's America's job to "influence" political change in Cuba. (For example, "...Now, with Fidel ailing and his brother Raul acting large and in charge, the United States has its best opportunity in years to influence the course of events on the island.....")
Is this really America's job? No, it's not. It's none of our f*cking business to be telling anyone else how to live, because we ourselves suck. We don't have the slightest moral authority to be instructing anyone else on what "reforms" they should make. We should bury this entire notion, once and for all, that America sits on high, & issues commands to other countries on how to organize their political & social existence.
Given that Fidel Castro retired and nothing happened (remember the legions of Cubans expected to make their way to south Florida on his death--no one realized he might retire), the anti-Castro Cubans are in a pretty weak position right now. I would have been disappointed in Obama's speech, had I not read Castro's comment when Obama and Clinton were busily denouncing Castro before the primary. He noted that we should expect nothing else--they were in south Florida, after all.
The real problem here is the huge amount of money that flows from the US government to the various anti-Castro groups in Florida and around the world for various anti-Castro projects. It's essentially a subsidy to the Cuban community, as not more than $200,000 in cash, goods and services ever makes its way to people in Cuba. So the big problem will be weaning these folks off welfare and sending them out to get real jobs.
Even the threat of communist expansion is irrelevant - considering the comparative puniness of Cuba's population to the US, and the language barrier. There is simply no excuse for maintaining a trade and travel embargo with Cuba.