The 10th anniversary of Obama’s spectacularly failed Cuba policy

On December 17, 2014, President Obama announced his “Cuba Thaw,” which went on to become a colossal failure, just as those who understand the communist Castro dictatorship expected and warned. Obama’s unilateral concessions only served to strengthen a Cuban regime that used the new legitimacy the U.S. granted them to increase repression. This mistake should never be repeated.

The Center for a FREE Cuba explains:

Why December 17, 2014 Obama Cuba policy changes failed, and should not be repeated

According to the late Czech president, playwright, and dissident Václav Havel, moral deeds, no matter how insignificant or pointless they seem at the moment, can have a significant impact on freedom and a just society. Decisions about what is right and wrong are so important because the world is so much more complicated than a puzzle that needs to be solved.

In an article titled Vaclav Havel, Still a Man of Morals and Mischief, published in the New York Times on October 13, 2009, President Havel asked whether it was true that President Obama had declined to meet with the Dalai Lama during an interview that was meant to be about the revolutions that overthrew communism 20 years prior. Havel replied:

“It is only a minor compromise,” Mr. Havel said of the nonreception of the Tibetan leader. “But exactly with these minor compromises start the big and dangerous ones, the real problems. “This is actually the first time I really do mind something Obama did,” Mr. Havel said. He minded it “much more” than Mr. Obama’s recent decision not to station elements of a missile-defense system in the Czech Republic, a move that several Central European politicians criticized but that Mr. Havel noted was ultimately “an internal American decision.”

These moral compromises were also seen with regard to normalizing relations with the Cuban dictatorship, but not all of them were minor.

Carnival Cruise Line signed an agreement with Cuban officials on March 21, 2016 to sail to Cuba from the United States. In order to conduct their core mission Carnival had to agree to enforce Havana’s policy that bans all Cubans from traveling into the island by water. It did not matter if Cubans born on the island were now citizens of another country. ( Obama’s Treasury Department on July 7, 2015 had signed off on the Carnival Cruise Line – Castro regime alliance ignoring that an entire class of Americans would be discriminated against based on their national origin.).

Normalizing relations with a dictatorship that has more in common with a transnational criminal enterprise than a legitimate government was not a smooth process, and it did not advance U.S. interests. Looking at how negotiations were conducted should have raised red flags.

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