MISSING THE BOAT
Our government’s embargo against Americans doing business in Cuba made the “Special Report Panel” with Bret Baier, Fox News, on Friday April 17th. I’ve been waiting for several years for this to happen, and wouldn’t you know I missed it. The transcript is available on the Fox News Website, and it’s with this text that I’m working.
Charles Krauthammer, the well-known contributor to the Fox News Channel came closest to reality when he raised Eastern Europe as a precedent for how you get rid of communist dictators like Fidel and Raul Castro. He spoke in terms of the Helsinki accord, but if you look behind that you’ll find the freedom offered by Western business was the true catalyst for bringing down the Soviet Empire and opening up Eastern Europe. Good-on-ya, Charles.
Fred Barnes, also on the Panel, actually said that China and Hugo Chavez are not going to be big factors in Cuba . . . no matter what. Fred’s been in Washington too long. What he might have been referring to is Fidel Castro’s systemic aversion to any outside force having too much influence in his Cuba, but to suggest that China has no designs or is incapable of carrying them out when the time is right, ignores what’s happened in Panama. Get with it, Fred.
Nina Easton made two contributions that were interesting. She said, only partly in jest I trust, that we should make Cuba the destination for college kids on Spring Break, and that would have a more damaging effect than the embargo has for 50 years. I liked that.
The other good point Easton made was noting the real reason for keeping American business out of Cuba until the Castros are gone . . . that Cuban American votes would be placed at risk in Florida. I’m not sure that’s the case any longer.
They all came up short of considering what seems obvious. If we were to simply . . . without fanfare and absolutely not in conversation with anyone in the Castro regime . . . repeal the Helms/Burton Act and the Cuban Democracy Act, as being unconstitutional limitations on American citizens doing business abroad, or if President Obama would sign an executive order stating the same and that he will therefore not enforce these laws against United States citizens, what do we think might happen?
First: The rest of the world, including the people of Cuba in and out of the Castro hierarchy, would realize we had simply opened up Cuba to international business. The Cuban regime would then have to act to keep the rest of the world out. This will, I guarantee you, cause unrest in Cuba, not only among ordinary people but also among those in the Cuban hierarchy that want very much to do business with us. How do I know that? I’ve talked with them.
Second: To enter any manner of discussions with the Castro Brothers gives them the stature and credibility they want, and sends the message to their people that we will do nothing that the regime doesn’t approve. That’s power, and that’s a step in the wrong direction.
Third: There are many ways of opening up Cuba on democratic terms once American citizens are free to operate down there without being fined or arrested by our own government for doing so.
Is this really so difficult to understand?
