SHOUTS: America, it is time to grow up

Congress is debating several new legislation related to Cuba. One allowing for travel and another more sweeping one seeking to mostly end the embargo.

I say: It is time to end the Cuban embargo.

Many have now agreed that the embargo has failed. Cuba is still a one party dictatorship; Cubans still do not have any more freedom than they did before the embargo. In fact, the policy lost the one thing that it won before - the support of the Cuban people.

Cuban people lament the lack of freedom but they attribute it to the embargo. The United States of America basically said, ” we don’t agree with your government and nobody else can either”. It is like the most powerful tough kid in the school saying that he does not like your personality, and therefore, the rest of the students can not play with you”.

The reality is, the Cuban regime has relied on the embargo to maintain its legitimacy to dictatorship and control of freedom. Exile Cubans or foreigners can not come in because they could be spies or American-trained invaders. Cubans can not leave because…well there was never a good argument other than the fact that it is embarrassing for the regime.

Therefore, once the embargo is removed, it loses any argument it ever had for restricting the movement of Cubans, both on and off the island.

Neither China nor Soviet Union’s brand of socialism failed because of an embargo. The self-destructions of their political projects demonstrated a failure that is more than self-explanatory, and so does the Cuban Embargo.

It is about time for the tough kid to grow up, especially since the rest of the kids have already started playing with the poor kid!!