(This image of Cuba is from the website cubaninsider.)As expected, the congressional Republicans have gone ballistic over President Obama's effort to restore normal diplomatic relations with Cuba (and ask for an end to the embargo that has lasted for over 50 years). They have accused the president of everything from surrendering to supporting dictatorships -- and some are even trying to come up with some way to keep the failed American policy in effect.
Some want to vote to keep the embargo in effect (which they could do, since it would take an act of Congress to end it). Others want to refuse to fund the building of a U.S. embassy in Cuba, or block the appointment of an ambassador to that country. But they had better tread carefully on this issue, since polls show most Americans are tired of the failed Cuba policy this country has been following -- and the GOP doesn't need another issue where they are out-of-step with most Americans.
They should consider the following points before doing something really stupid:
* The policy, designed to force the Cuban government to fall, has been an abject failure.
* Most other countries in the world have established normal diplomatic relations with Cuba, and now ignore the U.S. embargo.
* Most nations in the Americas, especially the Latin American nations, no longer want to treat Cuba as a pariah, and this has caused a lack of respect for the U.S. among those countries.
* The United States already has full diplomatic relations (and no embargo) with many other dictatorial countries (Saudi Arabia, China, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Uganda, etc.) -- and a lot of those countries have a worse human rights record than Cuba does.
* Restoring diplomatic relations and ending the embargo would benefit both nations economically.
* The U.S. government would not stand for another country interfering in our internal politics, so it is wrong for us to try to do that with Cuba.
* Cuba poses no danger to the United States.
* Most Americans support normalizing relations with Cuba and ending the embargo.
I know it offends the extremist congressional Republicans to agree with the president about anything, but the president has just done what needed to be done a long time ago. They will not win any new political friends by opposing his action.
