US-Cuba Ties Thaw, White House Open To Castro Visit -- AFP
Washington (AFP) - A US visit by Cuban President Raul Castro is a possibility, the White House said, a day after he and US President Barack Obama announced a historic bilateral rapprochement.
With developments proceeding apace, a high-level US diplomat, Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson, revealed she will travel to Havana in late January for the first direct talks to "begin the process of restoration of diplomatic relations."
But amid celebrations on Havana's streets and plaudits ringing out from China to Chile over the prospects of burying a final vestige of the Cold War, American lawmakers smothered prospects of any rapid roll-back of the trade embargo at the heart of the dispute.
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My Comment: I have kept quiet on this news story because everything about the Fidel brothers and the corrupt and wretched system that they and their supporters have imposed on the Cuban people just makes me sick. For as long as I can remember .... ... and this is from a Soviet perspective .... I never understood the Soviet Union's lavish and unquestionable support for Cuba and the Castro brothers. Billions of dollars spent every year to prop up those thugs .... just to be in a position to poke the U.S. in the eye and to aggravate the occupant of the White House. I got into countless arguments over Cuba when I was working in the FO .... and no one ever gave me a satisfactory explanation on why so much money was being spent, and what was the geopolitical benefit from it. No one.
Today .... the left in America are overjoyed that President Obama has decided to restore diplomatic relations with a regime that has a long history of murder, imprisoning political prisoners for decades, torture, the banning of independent unions, complete state control of the media, wide spread internet and communications restrictions, a brutal internal police force, and .... well you get the picture. And while the U.S/ is hoping that this will lead to long term political changes in Cuba .... I am willing to bet that nothing of the sort will happen .... especially now ... because there will be no motivation for the Cuban regime to change. The Cuban regime agreed to the restoration of ties because they want to receive U.S. aid and investment .... aid and investment that they badly need to prop up their government and to pay off their supporters. They have now accomplished this, and what is now left are the details .... details that I am willing to bet that the White House is going to be very open about .... and very accommodating. And as for the Cuban people .... they will get the crumbs .... if they are lucky.
There was a time when the U.S. stood for something .... even when the entire world disagreed with them .... but those days are gone .... long gone. And when Raoul Castro (and maybe his brother Fidel) are invited to the White House and into the Oval Office .... for me .... it will be the final nail in the coffin that the U.S. is not the country that I knew decades ago .... it has morphed into something else .... and with the full support of it's political elite and most of it's voters.