Ending the Cuban embargo. Maybe it's about time we did!

Today POTUS Barack Hussein Obama ended over a half century* of trade restrictions which is basically the last official remnant from the Cold War.

And, I'm all for it. But, not for the reasons one might first think.

I don't smoke cigars so I couldn't care less about greater opportunities to obtain Cuban tobacco. And I think in these past 50+ years we've found other sources for sugar cane.

But, let's be clear here; I have no love of or respect for Fidel Castro, his politics or his ways of governing people.

No, I'm all for dropping the embargo for one reason; it didn't work. The embargo began and was increased thru the years by many a US president and/or congress** to destabilize the Cuban economy and population and bring about the end of the oppressive regime of Fidel Castro.

Yet Castro has [somehow] remained in power the whole time. So, as far as I'm concerned, it's time to give up the embargo and move onto more effective strategies.

However, the exchanging convicted Cuban terrorists for an American Cuba was holding hostage the past 5 years and plans to build an embassy there and all the rest was just window dressing Obama used to fluff up and/or justify his abandonment of a half-century old idea that just didn't work like we thought it would.

Does it upset me America did this? Not really. I think it's probably about time we dumped the failed embargo.



*POTUS Dwight Eisenhower began the first restrictions on American trade with Cuba in 1958
**POTUS Kennedy upped the Eisenhower-era restrictions by Executive Order in 1962 (but not before he acquired 1,200 Cuban cigars which he was about to make illegal) and again in 1963, again in the Reagan era (1982) and the Clinton era (1992). (Source: Wikipedia (18 December, 2014) United States embargo against Cuba, Retrieved same date from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba