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The Obama administration eased a few travel restrictions today regarding visits to Cuba by religious or student groups, but left the overall Treasury Department sanctions intact. It is still technically illegal for a US citizen to spend money in Cuba without Treasury Department authorization, which makes Cuba unique among all nations on Earth in terms of American policy.
However, many Americans feel that such limits are beyond the proper power of the government, and travel to Cuba without government permission, by flying into Cuba through non-American (and usually non-Canadian) airports (Caracas is a popular transit point).
How do you feel about the travel embargo, and the embargo-breakers? Would you turn in a person for breaking the embargo, or do you feel that the US federal government should not be in the business of dictating where Americans may or may not travel overseas?
Are you old enough to remember when Castro first took over the government? The nightly news showing videos of rows of Cuban citizens standing in front of ditches, the machine guns going off and the bodies falling in the ditches? The people tortured and killed by Che Guevara?
As long as his government is in power will never go there and no matter how much BS Michael Moore puts out that it's a great country "for the people"
Freedom of choice, people here in America follow the laws of the land as long as it suits them and don't think twice about breaking a law if it suits them. So it doesn't mean squat that the government has laws pertaining to Cuba.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
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There're plenty of other "dictatorships" around the world, both present & past, that we've turned a blind eye towards (Sukarno, Pinochet, Marcos, the Shah of Iran, etc.), so why this fixation on Castro's Cuba? Which BTW is arguably better off than it was under the violently oppressive Bautista, always a friend to mafia exiles & wealthy movie stars.
But this "obsession" only makes sense if maybe one happens to be related to the "affluent class" of fanatical Cuban nationals, mostly living in S. Florida now, who once thrived under Bautista's old regime. Yet even though it's been decades since they had to flee Castro's revolution.... to this day, they still fantasize about how things "used to be". Unless of course you happen to disagree, in which case, some of those fanatical folks may want to kill you.
So it'll only be when that generation finally dies off, that we'll finally be able to fully "normalize" relations with our Caribbean "neighbor" once again.
I find the concept of telling people that they cannot visit a neighboring nation (that pissed on our Cheerios in the 50's) to be pretty interesting. It punishes Cubans, did almost nothing to Castro.
It's interesting that we have strong alliances with countries that have far worse human rights records than Cuba, but only Cuba is singled out for the embargo treatment. The policy is rather clearly driven by interest groups and a certain amount of vengeance, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans disregard the policy altogether.
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As long as his government is in power will never go there and no matter how much BS Michael Moore puts out that it's a great country "for the people"
Visiting or not visiting Cuba is a personal choice, of course. The question is, why would we want to put that decision into the hands of the federal government in the first place?
Part of "singling out Cuba" has to do with the enthusiastic willingness of the homicidal maniac who remains the dictator of that pathetic country -- an enthusiasm which he has never recanted, by the way -- to provide bases for Soviet nuclear missiles aimed at the United States.
When Cuba gives up its half-century of mendacious institutionalized loathing for America, its paranoid manipulation and thought-control of its people, and its loathsome embrace of the worst kind of Stalinist repression, then and only then should America accept an apology for its having threatened our nation with nuclear war, agree to remove the embargo, and let them make underwear and cheap trinkets for Walmart, clean our toilets, and send their university students here to learn how to use the Internet without worrying about the secret police.
In return, perhaps the Cubans will consent to offer Michael Moore gastric bypass surgery with unsterilized instruments. Talk about win-win...
Again, if you personally have a dislike of Cuba, you aren't forced to visit. The question is why you would wish to have the US federal government arrogate that decisionmaking power from you.
People have different reasons for visiting Cuba. Some have friends or contacts there; some are tourists, and so on.
Do you feel it is the proper role of the federal government to intercede into personal travel decisions by private US citizens?
Forbidding travel to Cuba makes a world of sense. I see no reason to permit travel to Cuba by those Americans who wish to enrich the Castro boys and provide hard currency for that prison-nation, regardless of how ignorant the potential travelers might be of the consequences of their trip.
Once Cuba comes to its senses and makes reparations for its crimes, the travel restriction question may be reconsidered. Until then, let los Cubanos enjoy their fly-infested garbage heap without American dollars to prop up absurd Stalinist politicians and swollen cold-war-era military.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
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For some reason all this reminds me of those other bunch of fanatics, the ones obsessed with the middle east. I'm talking about the Americans who continually "fan the flames", by heading over to Israel and deliberately building settlements in the Palestinian West bank (in violation of international law & the Oslo Accord).
And then there's their equally whacko "cousins", the Evangelical Christians who fanatically support Israel.... because the bible says it's essential to bringing about the Apocalypse!
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