April 14, 2009 [LINK / comment]
As expected, President Obama has announced that most current prohibitions on trade and travel with Cuba are being relaxed. It is clearly the first step toward ending the 48-year old embargo on the Caribbean dictatorship. See the Washington Post.
As I recently noted, it doesn't matter whether the embargo is having the desired effect, the question is whether we are going to make unilateral concessions to a government that remains unremittingly hostile to our interests and is a moral abomination to humanity. How ironic that the "first black Kennedy" (as Barack Obama was dubbed by Garry Trudeau in Doonesbury) is undoing the policies put in place by JFK. "Camelot" indeed!
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
(1961 Inaugural Address, from bartleby.com)
Perhaps the following phrase is more appropriate to our times, with respect to U.S.-Cuban relations in particular:
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.