Cuba relations thawing

[The Poet]

I sympathize fully with Carlos here, as with the full Cuban-American community. I do not believe Raul is much better than Fidel, and do not think the lot of the common Cuban citizen has been much improved in recent years despite the announced "reforms". Still, the fact remains that 50+ years of US embargo has done little to bring the Cuban government to a more amenable relationship with either America or its own people. In fact, the removal of most support following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the imminent prospect of a reduction of support from a struggling Venezuela has done more to bring about a reassessment by Cuba's leadership of their future. Thus it may indeed be time for the US to try a different approach to this sticky issue.

Albert Einstein famously said that definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different outcome. This has been America's tack since JFK first signed the embargo back in 1960. A change now might be an error, but it seems to me that stubborn resistance to change is decidedly one.