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Obama removes Cuba from state sponsor of terror list

TheDemSocialist

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WASHINGTON — The White House says President Barack Obama is removing Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a key step in President Barack Obama’s bid to normalize relations between the two countries.The White House says on Twitter that Obama has submitted to Congress required reports and certifications indicating his intent to take Cuba off the list.
Obama made the final decision following a State Department review of Cuba’s presence on the list.


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Many were expected this to happen soon enough. About damn time this happens. The only thing Cuba exports now is doctors. Another step in the right direction to repairing this relationship between our two countries.
 
Read more @: Obama removes Cuba from state sponsor of terror list

Many were expected this to happen soon enough. About damn time this happens. The only thing Cuba exports now is doctors. Another step in the right direction to repairing this relationship between our two countries. [/FONT][/COLOR]

Quoted for truth! I don't smoke - I hate smoking - but doggone it, once I see Cuban cigars for sale here stateside, I'm gonna smoke me one and listen to the greatest anti-war song ever written! Funny how that song still applies so strongly today, so long after the Cold War (which cost Cuba so much) was done and over with....
 
And Obama continues his mission of ass-kissing dictators all over the globe!
 
And Obama continues his mission of ass-kissing dictators all over the globe!

Do the ones that we are and pretty much always have been buddy buddy with count? Or are those the ones we just dont wanna talk about?
 
I wonder how Rubio feels after this announcement came out? Less than 24 hours after he announced he is running for President...
 
We should have started this effort years ago, this bit with Cuba has gone on long enough.
 
the best path forward for our relations with Cuba is to do everything we can to open it up. communism has failed as usual, and by this point, the embargo is probably doing more to keep the communist dictatorship in place. it has been that way for a while.

you want to change oppressive dictatorships? **** bombs. drop smartphones, and set up cell towers outside the borders. that should accomplish the task a lot more efficiently than bombs or terror lists. when given access to information, many start to realize that the tiny percentage of the population with power is ****ing up their lives. then they take care of that. the same holds true for capitalism, and for every other system of government. that's why oppressive regimes try to limit access to information, and tightly control communication.
 
This is little more than Obama playing politics so that he'll have at least one foreign policy 'win' (or appearance of a win anyway) for his legacy; his already badly tarnished legacy.

It does make me wonder what Cuba did to land on the US Terror List, and if they've changed their behavior or not.
 
the best path forward for our relations with Cuba is to do everything we can to open it up. communism has failed as usual, and by this point, the embargo is probably doing more to keep the communist dictatorship in place. it has been that way for a while.

you want to change oppressive dictatorships? **** bombs. drop smartphones, and set up cell towers outside the borders. that should accomplish the task a lot more efficiently than bombs or terror lists. when given access to information, many start to realize that the tiny percentage of the population with power is ****ing up their lives. then they take care of that. the same holds true for capitalism, and for every other system of government. that's why oppressive regimes try to limit access to information, and tightly control communication.

An interesting idea.

So a more modern version of ''Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty", and after how many years of continuous broadcasting how many dictators did that topple? No, I'm serious. How many?
 
An interesting idea.

So a more modern version of ''Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty", and after how many years of continuous broadcasting how many dictators did that topple? No, I'm serious. How many?

One could very well argue that the influence of western culture, and ideas, into the eastern bloc very well helped topple it, and Radio Free Europe, etc played a pretty big roll in spreading those ideas.
 
An interesting idea.

So a more modern version of ''Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty", and after how many years of continuous broadcasting how many dictators did that topple? No, I'm serious. How many?

you really think that the soviet union fell because just one president said some firm words in front of a wall and had a bunch of nukes?

it's a lot more nuanced than that. the kids wanted blue jeans, rock and roll, and an end to toilet paper lines. the straw that broke the camel's back was extended war and a major drop in the price of oil. sound familiar?

you can accomplish a lot more by showing the Cuban people just how ****ty their asshole dictator is making their lives, and you do that with information.
 
This is little more than Obama playing politics so that he'll have at least one foreign policy 'win' (or appearance of a win anyway) for his legacy; his already badly tarnished legacy.

It does make me wonder what Cuba did to land on the US Terror List, and if they've changed their behavior or not.

Yet today's Republicans don't have a problem with Nixon and China--as well as Reagan and the Soviet Union.
And look past the hundreds of thousands of lives of American soldiers who were killed in war due to those two nations.
Not to mention the remaining Veterans from Korea and Vietnam.

GOPs say they are concerned with the Cuban people--which is why they want to keep those people destitute .
 
Yet today's Republicans don't have a problem with Nixon and China--as well as Reagan and the Soviet Union.
And look past the hundreds of thousands of lives of American soldiers who were killed in war due to those two nations.
Not to mention the remaining Veterans from Korea and Vietnam.

GOPs say they are concerned with the Cuban people--which is why they want to keep those people destitute .

Please explain how the embargo keeps the Cuban people destitute when Cuba trades with every other nation on the planet and are at capacity in their cigar sales?
 
Please explain how the embargo keeps the Cuban people destitute when Cuba trades with every other nation on the planet and are at capacity in their cigar sales?

Not true. See the Helms-Burton Act. It expands the embargo, and penalizes foreign companies who trade with Cuba.
 
One could very well argue that the influence of western culture, and ideas, into the eastern bloc very well helped topple it, and Radio Free Europe, etc played a pretty big roll in spreading those ideas.

Yeah, I can see that, an idea being the most incestuous thing to try and stamp out in a totalitarian state. But is that form of mass communication effective at that, was all I was interested in.

Interesting to note that 'TheDemSocialist' applauding, if I don't miss my guess, the importation, seeding and spreading of capitalistic and liberty ideas in the former Socialistic, Communistic totalitarian states that were once behind the Iron Curtain. Interesting. :peace
 
you really think that the soviet union fell because just one president said some firm words in front of a wall and had a bunch of nukes?

No, I think that the Cold War and military expenses ate up an economy that couldn't support it, and that the West was pretty lucky in that their economy could, but just barely. When it came to SDI, the Russian bottom fell out. Defeated by a superior economic model, I think.

it's a lot more nuanced than that. the kids wanted blue jeans, rock and roll, and an end to toilet paper lines. the straw that broke the camel's back was extended war and a major drop in the price of oil. sound familiar?

Hmm. Yeah, worrisome that. 'Course a stronger economy would off set that, but, well, the economy has had the additional burden of Obama's bad economic and regulatory policies to content with.

you can accomplish a lot more by showing the Cuban people just how ****ty their asshole dictator is making their lives, and you do that with information.

Me thinks that this'll generate more opposition bound to and more into political prisons.
 
Yet today's Republicans don't have a problem with Nixon and China--as well as Reagan and the Soviet Union.
And look past the hundreds of thousands of lives of American soldiers who were killed in war due to those two nations.
Not to mention the remaining Veterans from Korea and Vietnam.

GOPs say they are concerned with the Cuban people--which is why they want to keep those people destitute .

I guess we'll see how this all pans out, but so far, it seems that Obama's been caving in to demands and getting little, if nothing, in return.

Cuba has an opportunity to reinvigorate their flagging economy, not the US, so wouldn't that put the onus on them to make some concessions to make this work? To make this happen?
 
No, I think that the Cold War and military expenses ate up an economy that couldn't support it, and that the West was pretty lucky in that their economy could, but just barely. When it came to SDI, the Russian bottom fell out. Defeated by a superior economic model, I think.

their economic model sucked. extended war in Afghanistan hurt them pretty badly, and the bottom dropping out of the oil market was the death blow. however, seeing that the rest of the world has it better than you makes you a lot less likely to put up with being walled in. the same thing will probably happen in Cuba.

communist dictatorships don't work. get out of the way, and let the dictatorship fail.

Hmm. Yeah, worrisome that. 'Course a stronger economy would off set that, but, well, the economy has had the additional burden of Obama's bad economic and regulatory policies to content with.

Me thinks that this'll generate more opposition bound to and more into political prisons.

opening up Cuba and ceasing to be a convenient demon will result in less support for an obsolete dictatorship. hook them up to the net, and let the people make a decision. in the meantime, embargoes only punish the people and give the dictators someone else to blame.
 
their economic model sucked. extended war in Afghanistan hurt them pretty badly, and the bottom dropping out of the oil market was the death blow. however, seeing that the rest of the world has it better than you makes you a lot less likely to put up with being walled in. the same thing will probably happen in Cuba.

communist dictatorships don't work. get out of the way, and let the dictatorship fail.



opening up Cuba and ceasing to be a convenient demon will result in less support for an obsolete dictatorship. hook them up to the net, and let the people make a decision. in the meantime, embargoes only punish the people and give the dictators someone else to blame.

Thing is though Helix, that pretty much the rest of the world has already been trading with them, and tourism there as well, and it's not really changed the situation much. So how much do you really think that US engagement is going to change the situation inside of Cuba, really?
 
Not true. See the Helms-Burton Act. It expands the embargo, and penalizes foreign companies who trade with Cuba.

I would argue that Act has been largely ineffective, given who all Cuba actively trades with. Everyone from Italy to France to Canada to just about everywhere in Central and South America. Plenty of nations, and as to the Act itself plenty of businesses and organizations.
 
Thing is though Helix, that pretty much the rest of the world has already been trading with them, and tourism there as well, and it's not really changed the situation much. So how much do you really think that US engagement is going to change the situation inside of Cuba, really?

the real question is how is the embargo doing anything other than giving the dictator an external entity to blame for the failure of a communist dictatorship? when a policy fails for fifty some years, it's time to try something else. economic sanctions have only hurt the people of Cuba. the very few who run the place have done just fine.
 
Thing is though Helix, that pretty much the rest of the world has already been trading with them, and tourism there as well, and it's not really changed the situation much. So how much do you really think that US engagement is going to change the situation inside of Cuba, really?

That is a very serious point. Our prior efforts to isolate Cuba did not really have lasting effect, especially once enough of the world simply moved on from that thinking we for some insane reason want to cling to.

We have a better shot at relations through trade and diplomacy than isolationism that really did not work. At least in terms of forcing change from within Cuba.
 
the real question is how is the embargo doing anything other than giving the dictator an external entity to blame for the failure of a communist dictatorship? when a policy fails for fifty some years, it's time to try something else. economic sanctions have only hurt the people of Cuba. the very few who run the place have done just fine.

True, but even if we had a 'non-engagement' policy, which didn't have any sanctions either, the Castro brothers would surely find some other external demon on which blame their self-inflicted lot. So I figure that's about even any way you cut it.

That is a very serious point. Our prior efforts to isolate Cuba did not really have lasting effect, especially once enough of the world simply moved on from that thinking we for some insane reason want to cling to.

We have a better shot at relations through trade and diplomacy than isolationism that really did not work. At least in terms of forcing change from within Cuba.

I'm not really against trade and diplomacy with Cuba, but in this international relationship, who's going to be the party that's going to gain the most? I really don't think that it's going to be the US. As such, then, Cuba needs to give some, such as releasing political prisoners, and other human rights issues, for example. Minimal cost, but something. Don't think that Obama's going to do that, or be able to do that.
 
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