The following is an excerpt from an article written for The Republican Lawyer:
The recent succession of power by hardliners in the Cuban Communist Party— the only legal political party on the island— demonstrated that its septuagenarian leadership is determined to try to maintain its iron-grip over the government. There was no tinkering at the political margin to promote younger leaders, not a dint of change from its traditionally repressive ways. Opponents of U.S. policy blithely argue that the onus is on the U.S. to change its position; the time has come to ease the embargo and allow Americans to travel to Cuba. Quite the opposite. If anything, we must fully and robustly enforce sanctions on the Cuban regime, while supporting the opposition.
It is no longer a question of if, but when Cuban Communism shall crumble under its own petard. The U.S. does not need to trade with Communist Cuba, it is the Communist Party that desperately needs trade to institutionalize its monopolistic hold of the economy cravenly controlled by Party chieftains. Cuba may tinker with reform as it has done in the past when faced with escalating political and economic challenges. As in the past, it will fail. Rewarding the Cuban repressive apparatus is not in the U.S. interest and is a poor risk for U.S. taxpayers since there will be no return on our investments. The island is a Potemkin village with its leaders on political life support. At this juncture the U.S. must support the future leaders of a free Cuba. In order to do this well, the Bush Administration should implement some of the many unused tools at its disposal in its diplomatic and economic policy arsenals.
The complete article is availble at the RNLA website.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
