CLINTON REPROVES CUBA FOR NOT GOING ALONG WITH U.S. POLICY

What's Hillary Clinton's problem with Cuba and the Castros? Obama needs to order the blockade to be lifted so that normal relations can begin. To say that Cuba must institute reforms before the embargo is removed is too humiliating for Cuban leaders and the Cuban people, and they will not comply as a matter of national pride.

The BBC reports on Clinton's latest statement:

"Cuba's leaders do not want to normalise ties with the US because then they would lose their excuse for the state of the country, says Hillary Clinton.

"Cuba's response to recent US efforts to improve relations had revealed "an intransigent, entrenched regime" in Havana, said the US secretary of state.

"The Cuban authorities have long blamed a 48-year US trade embargo for holding back the country's development.

"The US says the embargo will remain until Cuba improves human rights."

Why is every government that disagrees with policies of the U.S. called a "regime," and why is the Cuban government "intransigent" and "entrenched?"

Clinton never explains. All of Latin America is calling for the U.S. to lift the embargo which hurts the common Cubano trying to make a living. Medicines from the U.S. are scarce and spare parts on American products are impossible to get. This embargo has been going on for 48 years, and what has it produced? Just misery and deprivation for the ordinary Cuban.

The history of Cuban sanctions proves an important point. Sanctions hardly ever work in bringing about political change. The U.S. tried to bring down Fidel Castro by punishing ordinary Cubans economically. But the Castros are still in power. So where is Barack Obama on all of this? And where is his commitment to negotiate instead of waging war, albeit economic war?

The current U.S. policy as enunciated by Hillary Clinton and approved by Barack Obama is a huge failure and an embarassment in all of Latin America.

U.S. SHOULD ALLOW CUBA TO RE-ENTER OAS

The other mostly Latin nations in the Americas belonging to the OAS (Organization of American States) want Cuba to be admitted as a full member. Why must Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the U.S. govt. stonewall admitting Cuba, thus opposing Cuba and the Cuban people? This is U.S. Yankee imperialism in action and at its worst.

Mark Landler writes in today's The New York Times web:

"One after another, the leaders stepped forward to demand that the 47-year-old suspension of Cuba’s membership be lifted immediately. Several condemned it as a relic of the cold war.

"“We cannot leave San Pedro Sula without correcting that other day that will live in infamy,” said President José Manuel Zelaya of Honduras, referring to the organization’s meeting in 1962 at which Cuba was banned.

"“Our brothers and sisters in Cuba,” Mr. Zelaya said, “have been suffering for so long as a result of the blockade that has been imposed by one of the most powerful economies in the world.”"

It has been 47 years since the U.S. drummed Cuba out of the OAS. And what has this gained the U.S.? What it has done is penalize and punish the Cuban people, all in the name of opposing Fidel Castro. This U.S. policy towards Cubans and Cuba has been a failure, a disaster, and disruptive of any meaningful U.S. policy towards Latin America. I say, stop it now, no conditions, no demands.

REPUBLICANS UNDER BUSH AND CHENEY LIKE TO TALK ABOUT "ENEMIES" OF U.S.

I wrote yesterday how I look forward to an intelligent and rational foreign policy under Barack Obama. In contrast to Bush and his fellow Republicans who think that the world is filled with "enemies" of the United States, I want a foreign policy where the assumption is that there are no "enemies," that other countries and other cultures are in fact different, and that it is in the best interest of the United States and all Americans to look on the world as friendly and not as hostile.

Consider specifically Cuba. There is no reason why the United States should not have good relations with Cuba and Cubans. Republicans like to talk about how bad Fidel Castro is and was, but could he be any worse than George Bush and Dick Cheney who believe in waterboarding and other forms of medieval torture? Furthermore, good relations cause governments to modify their excesses, and I believe, to grant more freedoms, to allow more dissent.

There is no reason why the foreign policy of the U.S. should continue to be that of Bush and Cheney who seem most content when they can invade, bomb, shoot missiles, and overturn democratically elected governments. Obama's point of talking with other leaders and other governments is the only sound and rational way to live in a world without going to war every ten years.

BUSH REFUSES TO THINK U.S. HOSTILITY TOWARDS CUBA EVEN AFTER CASTRO RETIRES

The U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba is one of the main reasons why we need Bush to leave office and Obama to come in. Bush refuses to rethink American foreign policy to Cuba even after Fidel Castro says his days in government are over. The U.S. maintains an economic blockade against Cuba and against the Cuban people. This is the message of Bush: we said we are punishing Castro but even when Castro departs, as he is now doing, we will maintain the blockade and punishment against the Cuban people themselves.

The U.S. needs to sit down with Raul Castro and the other Cuban leaders and work with them for the mutual benefit of both Americans and Cubans. Instead of treating Cuba as an "enemy" of the U.S., we need to initiate dialog and contact. We need to foster friendship and respect instead of hostility and animosity.

Friendship between Cuba and the U.S. will never come as long as Bush or the Republicans hold the White House.

CONDI RICE CRITICIZES SPAIN FOR DEALING WITH CUBA

Here is a story in the Salt Lake Tribune this morning from the AP by Paul Haven on Condi Rice lecturing the government of Spain for dealing with Fidel Castro and Cuba.

"At issue is Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos's decision to snub Cuban dissidents on a visit to Havana in April.

""I have made it very clear that I have real doubts about engagement with a regime that is antidemocratic. Spain has a different view on that," Rice said during a press conference alongside her Spanish counterpart, Miguel Angel Moratinos. "People who are struggling for a democracy need to know that they are supported.""

Lofty goals in support of democracy in Cuba from the Secretary of State of the United States. But how come Condi's doubts apply only to Castro and Cuba? At the very same time that she admonishes Spain, Rice maintains and defends U.S. chummy relations with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, all of whom are ruled by autocratic despots who flout the rule of law and democratic ideals.

This is but another example of the screwed-up foreign policy of George Bush and his gang. Divide the world into forces of good and evil, based upon your own inner voice. Then choose all the kiss-ups, such as Condi Rice, for important offices no matter how unqualified, and direct them to extend aid and friendship to the "good," at the same time as you order sanctions and even bombs against the "evil."