Should we lift sanctions against Cuba?

There are 2 points of view on this issue

On one hand, lifting sanctions on Cuba will piss off the Cuban population in Miami as well as other places. Also, Human Rights advocates will be ticked off too.

On the other hand, this opens up a lucrative market for the American Farmers. It could good for the economy.

There may be other talking points that my CAGers might bring up. So what do you think? Voice your opinion.



P.S. You can find a timeline here http://www.iie.com/research/topics/sanctions/cuba.htm

Yes, we should lift sanctions

of course we should, cuba is a great vacation spot that very few americans have been to

yes... viva la revolution!!

I dunno, do they have any video games they can import?

Well I know they approved the sale of argiculture goods to private organizations in Cuba a few years ago. Have they since changed that or am I misinterpretting what happened.

I am guessing that the US Gov't is just waiting for Castro to die and move in after that. If they lift sanctions it would help Major League Baseball more than Cuba it's self. Cuba has tons on major League talent on that island.

There is some belief that we could have accelerated the collapse of the Soviet Union by making its citizens more conscious of how much better the average American lived via smuggled consumer goods of distinctly Western origin. (Some say this happened naturally and the CIA couldn't have improved much on the enterpising smugglers.)

Likewise, it is possible an influx of American products and vacationers will have a very negative effect on the Castro regime. P.J. O'Rourke had an interesting chapter on this in his 'Eat the Rich.'

Our standard of living and cultural products are among our best weapons that draw no blood. While China remains lothsome in many ways it has become immensely more free in my lifetime in direct relation to its economic interaction with the world.

Lift sanctions when Castro is dead. The minute he assumes room temperature, before anyone can solidify power, flood the country with American and western "stuff" in waves. I think once you flood long deprived people with a taste of Western life and more importantly the freedoms that come from societies that produce them, any sucessor to Castro will be short lived.

Unfortunately even if we dumped sanctions with Castro in power I don't think the products that would make the biggest differences; faxes, PC's, TV's, short wave radio etc. would ever be made available to the average person. I think Cuba has the potential to be as a wonderful success story in transformation as Eastern Europe was 15 years ago.

i say we plunder Cuba and then nuke it.

[quote name='PittsburghAfterDark']Lift sanctions when Castro is dead. The minute he assumes room temperature, before anyone can solidify power, flood the country with American and western "stuff" in waves. I think once you flood long deprived people with a taste of Western life and more importantly the freedoms that come from societies that produce them, any sucessor to Castro will be short lived.[/quote]

I'm with you on this one.

Either lift sanctions of Cuba or impose those sanctions on China.

No sense in being hypocrytical just besause 1 brutal communist nation makes us a lot of money and the other doesn't.

By the way, in oorder to stage a revolution the Cuban people would require high tech communication devices to organize and carry out what would soon turn into an open war. Why not give sell them products made in the good old US of A.

Maybe sell them some guns, too. Castro would not last long if the Cuban citizens were as well armed as a US militia.

[quote name='Quackzilla']Either lift sanctions of Cuba or impose those sanctions on China.

No sense in being hypocrytical just besause 1 brutal communist nation makes us a lot of money and the other doesn't.[/quote]

I have to say that I usually don't agree with your political views Quackzilla, but on this issue I am total in agreement. If we are boycotting Cuba because they are a communist country, then the same boycott should be placed on all communist nations.

Sanctions should be lifted immediately. It's clear the are having no impact on forcing a regime change, and are more than likely gonna make the transition bloodier. Plus, they deprive much needed food and medicine needed in Cuba.

Places like North Korea are trickier, but Cuba is a no-brainer

Dave Olson

Well, if all the sanctions are lifted, the Expos probably would have a place to go.

Seriously, I don't see why the US is the last to hold this grudge that's been dropped by almost the entire remainder of the free world. But then again, why should we question the government?

Good luck with the republicans in control

The sanctions have no valid reason for existing. We put them in place due to the Cold War, which everyone pretty much knows was just a big overexaggeration now. Russia had nukes, but never had the economic stability etc... that we had. Not even close. Cuba is even worse off, and mostly because of the sanctions that we have imposed.

The people aren't doing very well right now, but it's not because of the dictatorship (although I'm no fan of Castro). It's because most countries have limited trade with them, if any. They have a great deal of things to export, including their thriving Biotech industry, which has come up with cures for many diseases that we have not yet (Hepatitis C vaccinations, for example, exist and have been proven safe and effective in Cuba, but we cannot gain widespread access to it due to the embargo).

Anyways, it would be beneficial for us all. I am a Cuban American, and I would like to see this done. And to my "bretheren" that live in Florida and would rather see our brothers still in Cuba rot under the pressure of the Embargo, I say that they are not my brothers. They can go to hell and rot. I feel very strongly about the issue. The fact that we got lucky and made it to America means that we should be helping to *ease* the suffering of our brothers who remain, not to make it harder on them. There is a great deal of hypocracy that goes on in the Cuban American community. I have tried speaking with some of my brothers on this issue, but their minds are closed. They're pitiful fools.

Sorry if I've offended anyone. As you can tell, I feel very strongly about this issue, as it is an issue very close to my heart.

On another issue, would Castro not last long if the citizens had their way? He has oppressed the vocal minority of Cuba, and has denied protections to the minority, this is true... but the majority he has treated fairly, and even with the meager income of the country a great deal of people live modestly subsisting lives. If you look at the UN statistics on quality of life, Cuba is first among "third world" nations, and is close on the tails of many of the world's superpowers. This is due to the technological and Biotech advances that Cuba has made and I have spoken of earlier.

Some people would want to revolt, and understandably it would be the minority. But the majority would be neutral to a revolution and might even defend Castro should the time ever come. They may not have a great life, but to many of them who have been raised with stories of tyranny under Batista, it is a fair trade. That is something that is hard to imagine on this side of the gulf, but it isn't so hard to understand if you were raised with it.

EDIT: I would also like to make a quick note about the success story of Eastern Europe. The Eastern Europe I know became embroiled in war after bloody civil war when the reins of Russia were loosened. The freedom that we gave them was the freedom to recklessly slaughter each other, or impose brutal dictators the likes of which the countries hadn't seen since Stalin himself. Take Yugoslavia, for example. Everyone must remember Slobidan Milosevic, and his tyrannical empire. Then there was the Bosnian/Herzegovenian War, the collapse of financial stability in Latvia, Estonia, and many other Eastern European countries. I don't know if it was successful... at the least, it must be handled with greater delicacy.