September 16, 2010.With credible reports that President Obama will issue an executive order lifting parts of the anachronistic U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, it is high time the U.S. public pressures Congress to go the final step to entirely end the half century old Cold War relic. The Obama administration's move would return U.S. embargo policy to the "people-to-people" approach followed by President Bill Clinton's administration,loosening restrictions on travel by academic, religious and cultural groups added to the embargo by President George W. Bush in 2004.">September 16, 2010.With credible reports that President Obama will issue an executive order lifting parts of the anachronistic U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, it is high time the U.S. public pressures Congress to go the final step to entirely end the half century old Cold War relic. The Obama administration's move would return U.S. embargo policy to the "people-to-people" approach followed by President Bill Clinton's administration,loosening restrictions on travel by academic, religious and cultural groups added to the embargo by President George W. Bush in 2004.">

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Kaplowitz: It's past time to end failed embargo on Cuba

September 16, 2010.With credible reports that President Obama will issue an executive order lifting parts of the anachronistic U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, it is high time the U.S. public pressures Congress to go the final step to entirely end the half century old Cold War relic.

The Obama administration's move would return U.S. embargo policy to the "people-to-people" approach followed by President Bill Clinton's administration,loosening restrictions on travel by academic, religious and cultural groups added to the embargo by President George W. Bush in 2004.

Last year, Obama changed a small part of the travel ban to allow Cuban Americans to visit the island and provide basic humanitarian assistance to their families.

Both Obama initiatives are steps in the right direction, but they do not go far enough. By statute, it takes an act of Congress, not an executive order, to fully end the counterproductive Cuba embargo. One proposal that would end significant aspects of the embargo is the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, HR 4645, currently awaiting action in the House Foreign Relations Committee.

When the United States first imposed an embargo on Cuba in 1960, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, and more than half of the U.S. population was not yet born. It has spanned five decades, nearly a dozen presidents and the end of the Cold War.

The antediluvian policy has remained despite the fact that it has failed to achieve its primary and long-term goal. The original policy planners hoped that economic hardships resulting from the embargo would foment internal dissent. Rather than inciting rebellion, the embargo provided a rallying point for the Cuban people.

If the embargo were lifted, U.S. businesses ranging from tourism to rice farmers, could realize up to $1.1 billion in additional business activities.

Adoption of HR 4645 would be good for U.S. families and would cost taxpayers nothing.

Not a bad prospect for our hard-hit economy. Moreover, the influx of U.S.tourists, iPods and ideas would have more impact on the Cuban political climate than 50 years of our embargo.

If history has taught us anything, it is that a half century of the Cuba embargo has not worked. Direct dialogue and free exchange of ideas yield results.

Donna Rich Kaplowitz lives in East Lansing.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20100916/OPINION02/9160326/1087/OPINI\ON02

Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/117789

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