Normalization With Cuba Is The Right Policy

Cuba sits on our southern doorstep, except for the common border countries; it is the most prominent nation in our geographic neighborhood with which we do not have diplomatic and commercial relationships.  We have watched for decades as we deployed our punitive policy against the Dictator Fidel Castro against the Cuban population. Castro’s brutal rule forced millions to flee, and it is for that reason the large Cuban community in the U.S. is largely comprised of people who have been victimized by Castro. History justifies the  Cuban community's deep resentment  but history also supports change. Isolation has not produced progress, and the people of Cuba suffer from our policies that truly are aimed at the political leadership there.

We have people in leadership in the United States who have been as brutal and doctrine driven as Castro. It is not a reach to suggest that an entire generation of Americans has been victimized by U.S. aggression in Iraq. Trillions of dollars wasted, hundreds of thousands of lives lost. Many thousands of American families suffered from the combat causalities there. It was reckless and misguided; it was brutal in its impact. The semblance of society that remains in Iraq is a sad tribute to the destruction of war.  There must be better ways to remove a few criminal dictators, and to provide free choice for a population. If there are, then they must begin with engagement.

Normalization Will Boost The U.S Economy
Opening travel and trade with Cuba will boost the U.S. economy. It will perhaps reduce one additional source of trade for the sanctioned Russian government. It will provide opportunities for cultural and educational enrichment for both nations. And it will improve economic opportunity for the current generations of Cuban people who have done nothing to deserve  international isolation.  Punishing the people for the perceived misdeeds of an autocratic government makes little sense. The Cuban people- by our theory of the world- are political captives.

Republican Critics Have a Reflex and No Reason
By all accounts, the Republican party leaders will condemn the policy because it is the Obama policy. They will ignore the President’s splendid role, and historic achievements  as the leader of Western Democracy and claim he has weakened the U.S. by dealing with a dictator.  These same people have promoted Putin’s war in Eastern Europe; soft-pedaled Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and played politics with ISIL while they cut a swath of terror in the Middle East. They have, thus far, failed to advance a legislative policy to contain the global threat of an oil-rich ISIL. There is little reason to pay attention to them. To assert that they care for the poor in Cuba is clouded by the way they treat the poor in America. It is as if they forget, in the global stage, you are what you do, and not what you say.

U.S. Cubans Can Make a Difference
The Cuban ex-patriot community has skin n the game. They have family ties, cultural roots, and ultimately a love of their native country. Engagement will be an opportunity to reach the Cuban community and foster ideals that can bring change. Opening relations with Cuba is an opportunity for involvement and the Cuban American community, there is no group better positioned to influence democracy in Cuba.