Should Cuba Be Removed From America's List Of Terror-Sponsoring Nations?
President Barack Obama said Tuesday he intends to remove Cuba from the U.S. government's list of nations that sponsor terrorism, a major step toward restoring relations between the two countries. The endorsement came days after Obama shook Raul Castro's hand at an international summit.
Is Obama right? Or is he treating a dangerous regime with kid gloves? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, debate.
JOEL MATHIS
No doubt those Castro brothers have been bad guys. You don't make peace with your friends, though - you make it with your enemies. It often involves compromises and tradeoffs that, in a perfect world, wouldn't be needed. Just in case it bears repeating: We're not living in a perfect world.
Peace with the Cuban regime is nonetheless worth seeking. Why? Because a half-century of desperate U.S. attempts to dislodge that regime have failed, miserably. Fidel Castro is still alive. Raul Castro is still in power. Maybe it's time to try a different approach.
If that means overlooking some nasty bits of recent history, well, who is to say that the Castro brothers don't have to do the same? Consider, briefly, how the United States might look through their eyes.
Before the Cuban Revolution, after all, the island nation was basically a wholly owned subsidiary of American businesses, run for American profit by a dictator - Fulgencio Batista - who censored the media, carried out public executions and generally was a bad guy. The Castros were part of the backlash, and if we don't like it, we might consider our own role in fomenting the dissent that empowered them.
Let's throw into this mix the Bay of Pigs, as well numerous - and ridiculous - assassination attempts on Fidel Castro during the 1960s. And let's not forget the existence of Luis Posada Carriles. He has been implicated in the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed 73 people, as well as a wave of bombings in the country during the late 1990s - and, oh yeah, he's living comfortably in Miami these days.
The U.S., you see, has long turned a blind eye - or even encouraged - acts against Cuba that most reasonably nations might describe as terrorism. And to try to make peace with the United States, the Castros have had to decide to put aside any bad feelings they've earned over the years.
None of this makes the Castros good guys, or their regime a model for the rest of us to follow. If we're to have peace - and it's better than the alternative - then everybody is going to have to a little bit of forgetting.
BEN BOYCHUK
President Obama's handshake with Raul Castro was a nice photo-op. The president got to look like a peacemaker and Castro got to look like a legitimate statesman. Neither of those things are true.
The question that should be at the forefront of any U.S. foreign policy decision is: Who benefits? What would the Castro regime gain from the president's decision to remove Cuba from the terror-sponsor list? What does the United States get in the bargain?
Cuba's organized crime ring masked as a government would benefit a great deal. U.S. corporations would be able to do business with the Castros without fear of prosecution. More importantly, Cuba would have greater access to international markets as well as the International Monetary Fund - a money pit of fraud and corruption funded largely through the generosity of U.S. taxpayers.
Obama's decision means the United States will forgive and forget Cuba's ongoing practice of harboring known terrorists from Columbia and Spain, along with dozens of U.S. fugitives that include one of the FBI's 10 most wanted.
Removing Cuba from the list also means the Cuban military can continue unabated its training of Venezuelan paramilitary "colectivos." These groups are an informal extension of the socialist government, responsible for providing neighborhood "security" by weeding out and beating up the democratic opposition.
And evidently Havana will never have to answer for its illegal arms shipments to North Korea, which included several hundred tons of weapons and a couple of MiG fighter jets.
In return, the Castros promise to be good and give Americans access to cigars, rum and some beautiful beaches. That's about all.
The president's posture toward Cuba is of a piece with his foreign policy in general: lots of verbiage, good "optics," and plenty of unilateral decisions that boost our adversaries while leave us looking like chumps.
In the end, Obama can add one more shiny placard to his presidential library, while the global reputation of the United States is further tarnished. Some bargain.