• Submitted by: manso
• United States
• Politics and Government
• 08 / 22 / 2010

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The Obama administration seems poised to announce the easing of some restrictions on Americans who wish to visit, study in or even do business with Cuba. This would particularly apply to academic and cultural groups and institutions. If this pans out, it would be a good and long overdue development, even if it won't play well with some Cuban Americans, especially in Florida, where anti-Castro sentiment remains strong and politically charged.

Actually, this nation's Cuban travel and trade embargoes have been slices of diplomatic and legal Swiss cheese for some time.

Thousands of Americans have slipped in and out of Cuba illegally through second countries — Mexico, the Bahamas and Canada, for example — and the Cuban authorities accommodate them by not stamping their passports.

But now, a House bill to lift the travel and trade bans has cleared the Agriculture Committee.

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who has visited Cuba and who supports changing the U.S.-Cuba policy, has said, “What we've done doesn't work, and it's clear that it doesn't work, so we need to try something new.”

Actually, a new approach ought to be to eliminate travel restrictions, not simply moderate them.

More exposure to Americans might well fuel the Cuban population's desire for political and economic change.

In any case, the Cold War is over. Cuba's government is a threat to no one. It's time to move on.

Source: www.courier-journal.com/