US and Cuba Restore Relations

~ Clarissa

Wow, finally Obama is waking up and getting into the game:

The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, American officials said Wednesday.

In a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis, who hosted a final meeting at the Vatican, President Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba agreed in a telephone call to put aside decades of hostility to find a new relationship between the United States and the island nation just 90 miles off the American coast.

This is a lot better than handing Cuba over to Putin. This is good news and a big win for the good guys. Of course, the Cuban immigrants will be upset but it isn’t like world politics has to bend to their immigrant trauma.

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Published by Clarissa

35 thoughts on “US and Cuba Restore Relations”

  2. In case somebody missed that, the American contractor was:

    Cuba has released Jewish-American aid worker Alan Gross after five years in prison […] Alan Gross was imprisoned for importing banned technology and trying to establish clandestine internet service for Cuban Jews; he was freed on humanitarian grounds.
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4604885,00.html

    People in the comments hope to see “a Chanuka miracle for our brother Jonathan Pollard.” Do the Americans know about the latter? In Israeli newspapers one often reads about him. The man is:

    // Jonathan Jay Pollard (born August 7, 1954) is an American prison inmate who pleaded guilty in 1987 to selling classified information to Israel while working as a civilian intelligence analyst […] Pollard is the only American ever to receive a life sentence for passing classified information to an ally of the U.S. Israeli officials, American and Israeli activist groups, and American politicians who see his punishment as unfair have lobbied continuously for reduction or commutation of his sentence. //

    Personally, I am afraid drawing the attention of the American public to Pollard case may make them see all American Jews as traitors and Israeli spies. I would rather we stopped talking about the man than get such a result.

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    1. “Personally, I am afraid drawing the attention of the American public to Pollard case may make them see all American Jews as traitors and Israeli spies. I would rather we stopped talking about the man than get such a result.”

      • Said she right after drawing attention to him on a blog with a huge American leadership. 🙂

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      1. \ Said she right after drawing attention to him on a blog with a huge American leadership. 🙂

        I understand it doesn’t change anything.

        I was interested whether Americans know about him and what you think about my position.

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        2. The FBI and CIA probably only agree on one thing and that is that Pollard did more damage to our spy network in the USSR than anyother person alive so they will never agree to his release. That they have been able to successfully counter the Zionist lobby seeking his pardon so far is nothing short of a miracle.

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              1. Based on 4 comments that say the same thing, I can see that this is a very significant topic for you. Can you tell me why?

                Also, tell me, if I call myself the sultan of Brunei, does that mean I am he? 🙂 🙂 The idea that a tiny little country that is completely financially dependent on the US for its very existence can somehow influence the US politics is very bizarre. Just as bizarre as the stubborn belief that there was some sort of a Cuban lobby that forced the US to maintain the embargo. Today’s events have finally proven to the most recalcitrant that it was a baseless fantasy.

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  4. I just heard on the BBC news this story of Cuba and USA renewing diplomatic and hopefully other relations and thought great! About bloody time and here’s at least one thing that Obama has got right!
    I’ve never heard of Pollard, he’s not been on the news outside the US. Surely this story is much bigger than this one man? Or is one US citizen more important than the whole Cuban population?

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    2. Pollard was a spy for the Israelis against the US some time ago. He is currently in prison in the US. The Israelis turned over the information on US spys in the USSR they got from Pollard over to the USSR in exchange for more Jewish emigration to Israel. The Soviets executed a number of the Soviet citizens working as spies for the US on the basis of this information.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard

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    3. “I just heard on the BBC news this story of Cuba and USA renewing diplomatic and hopefully other relations and thought great! About bloody time and here’s at least one thing that Obama has got right!”

      • Yes!

      “I’ve never heard of Pollard, he’s not been on the news outside the US. Surely this story is much bigger than this one man? Or is one US citizen more important than the whole Cuban population?”

      • This isn’t being done for the Cuban population. This is done to advance American interests. It’s not up to Americans to do anything for the Cuban population. The (truly horrifying) hardships of Cubans are not caused by the embargo or the Americans.

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  5. I have to admire Obama for his courage. US – Cuban relationships have been the third rail of American politics for fifty years. When the late Canadian Prime Minister, Perrier Trudeau, was buried Fidel Castro and Jimmy Carter were two of the coffin bearers. This fact was never mentioned or shown on US TV at the time. Very recently when Noah Mamet was vetted by a congressional committee for appointment as US ambassador to Argentina (in spite of the fact he had never been to the country or spoke Spanish), two of the senators pontificated without showing any evidence about how Argentina President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner took her orders from Castro. Of course, if the congressional conversation gets too heated Obama has an out since he very pointedly mentioned in his speech today that Canada was the intermediary.

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  6. I think normalizing relations is a good thing (the embargo was the dumbest foreign policy imaginable) and getting rid of it can only lead to abandonment of the revolución.

    I’m surprised the Cuban leaders went for it since it gave them an out for their massive incompetence and failures. I’m assuming they have exit strategies prepared.

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    1. “I think normalizing relations is a good thing (the embargo was the dumbest foreign policy imaginable) and getting rid of it can only lead to abandonment of the revolución.”

      • The revolution only exists as a talking point since capitalism was let into Cuba. Capitalism is such an enormous and seductive force that there is noting that can withstand it.

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  7. \ I won’t address the zionist lobby thing but as far as I’m concerned he can rot in jail forever.

    Pollard? What about American spies whom Israel will catch or has caught?

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    1. People, aren’t we a little bit to old to get so excited about spies? They are doing their job and paying the price they knew they’d pay before they got into this profession.

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      1. —Who knows, maybe Putin got baptized there.

        No, this is too small of a pretext… I mean – sufficient for an invasion, but not elevating enough for his image. He brought Christianity to Cuba! 🙂 and Venezuela!

        —Or maybe he got baptized in Tallinn, hmmm. . .

        Well… He is often suspected of being of Finno-Ugric background. So far he did not comment on that, but when oil hits 120 again he may remember about that and decide to “unite all Finno-Ggric nations”, for example. Hungary’s Jobbik already loves him…

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  9. I was wondering why all of the food blogs I follow were sharing Cuban recipes today. Then I come here and realize that my blogroll is simply filled with people who think with their stomachs. 🙂

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  10. This needed to happen a long time ago.

    Venezuela poses a bigger threat to peace in the Caribbean Sea — they’ve repeatedly maintained the position that their maritime limits should include most of the Caribbean Sea, including the waters of several Caribbean countries.

    If Cuba becomes prosperous enough that they’re in a position to maintain the current peace in the Caribbean Sea, that benefits the United States as well.

    As for certain offended voters in South Florida, what are they going to do next election, vote Republican?

    HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW
    (that’s not a fake laugh, it’s real 🙂 )

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  11. I knew this was about American interests, of course, but had not thought of the freakazoid and the plans he must have had for Cuba. I am a bit slow.

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