Obama watching, weighing Cuba's next moves

having chummy moments with the man he once branded a demagogue, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

Time to see how long it takes before one of Obama's new found friends attacks us.

America,Venezuela and Cuba ties on the way up,good for the Americas.

There is some problems of political systems,but trade should be more like in Vietnam/China.

Which 2 countries actually is the same in all aspects.

Cubans,Americans and Venezuelans should move on ahead , with Obama administration. Why not ?

Back to the Carter era - misery at home, appeasement abroad.

teleprompter: "misery at home, appeasement abroad."

It's not 'appeasement' abroad, much as you might wish it simply were, it's improving relations; something your country has destroyed for the past eight years under the moron that was president before Obama. Fortunately, now you have a president you can be proud of, and he is working to heal the relations bush destroyed, as well as those with Cuba, for which the embargo is nothing short of ridiculous and meaningless. And just so you're not confused (more than normal), healing relations abroad makes friends, not enemies.

Obama makes Carter look like a right-wing extremist.

Lift the embargo and wait two months;the int'l Left will be howling about American 'cultural imperialism'.

Two threads on the same story. Where was I? For Prez Obama and his administration 'the new beginning for Cuba' is going to mean a return to Cuba as American money used to know it.

Reality is this, Prez Obama went to Trinidad to talk a new face onto US imperialism. The US has always had strategic interests in Latin America, and there was a time when it exerted hegemony over the region. But not so to the same extent any longer. Obama went there to repair the damage done by years of aggressive US unilateral policies particularly those that directly affected the region over two terms of the Bush administration.

Prez Bush's regime asserted a series of bilateral trade agreements, or at least attempted to do so, while pursuing its War on Terror along with the War on Drugs, both as the means to militarily dominate Latin America. All the time the US maintained its embargo on trade with Cuba, and sought to destabilize Latin left leaning nationalist governments.

While Prez Obama 'listens' to Latin America there is little tangible evidence the policies of his administration will be little different to those of the previous administration. The tone he adopts is shall we say a little more inclusive but if you look for example at who has been placed in charge of Latin American policy you find it is the same guy, Secretary Thomas Shannon, worked for Bush now working for Obama, in exactly the same role, i.e. Chief State Department Official.

The summit held in Trinidad made a lot of declarations but like the recent G20 in London the draft declarations are essentially meaningless providing nothing more than a wish list; i.e. end poverty, unemployment, etc. along with declarations to strongly support capitalist free trade (a contradiction in itself) and investment, the very two things responsible for the conditions present in Latin America the Summit declares it aims to fix! What a joke, what a bad joke.

Promises and platitudes on display for all to see, if they will.

As for Prez Obama on the question of the US re-establishing ties with Cuba, the provisions he has offered will serve to make the gap between Cuban's that have dollars and those that don't far greater than it is now. And incredibly, posters on these threads, many of them apparently Cuban have failed to say a word about the fact that the Obama administration has made it clear the economic blockade will stay in place! At least the article above makes the fact the blockade on Cuba is still in place reasonably clear.

Well a lot is changing, even if the change isn't actually in the direction taken by Washington. The change lies within America itself. As economic conditions within America for a majority of Americans considerably worsens in quick time, and the social breakdown resulting becomes overwhelmingly visible, many have begun to question the sense of staying with a capitalist system that is clearly broke (broke a long time ago actually).

As conditions in the US become more like those in Latin America the numbers of people turning against capitalism will only increase.

As conditions in the US become more like those in Latin America the numbers of people turning against capitalism will only increase.

No to any real extent.

SuperLib

As conditions in the US become more like those in Latin America the numbers of people turning against capitalism will only increase. No to any real extent.

We will see.

Verification that I am likely to be correct here lies in the latest Rasmussen polling figures which already show not only a real change within American perception on Cuba, but a much greater sea change of public opinion within America in support of a shift to Socialism.

You can write reality off Superlib, but that is about as meaningful as attempting to deny gravity, if not quite as painful. With the Rasmussen poll showing 53% of Americans think Capitalism is preferable to Socialism, Prez Obama's faces a major presence in American political life right from outside the rigged two party system in place. Of course, the question posed by the poll is ridiculous, but it highlights the confusion and distrust that is steadily growing within American society.

So what I ask is the real reason the Obama administration and their media wing focusing so much public attention on changing their relationship to Cuba? The answer I suggest, is that this policy move is akin to Roosevelt's New Deal, the idea is to refocus the growing in Socialism on old nemises of Castro next door. In other words, the administration is reminding the public that Communism still lives and it is right next door, but American capitalism can defeat it. The whole enterprise works very similarly to the use of US military in Aden to kill three teenage pirates.

First paint fangs on the bad guys, making sure they are defeatable first (and Cuba likely is that, now that Castro is on the demise). Then on one hand, use the boots to stomp the really small bad demons, and on the other hand, use the velvet glove along with multiple US dollars to win over the other demon to the side of the good guys.

TexasAggie :Time to see how long it takes before one of Obama's new found friends attacks us.

Has to be one of the dumbest comments I've seen for a while. So Chavez and Castro get together.

What you say Hugo that we get our armies and navies to spring a surprise attack on America?

Raul! That is fantasticio! They would never suspect and then we could overthrow capitalism!

But we need a day like 9=11 when not a single US plane was partroling.

They still do that comrade?

They do when it suits them. And they are very scared. Go to JT and see comments from TexasAggie. They are very scared and worried.

Hugo, never forget........america always needs an enemy. Germany, Libya, Somalia, Vietnam, France, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran.....always a new threat needed to keep the military machine going. Why not Cuba? Or Fiji?

taniwha, so a 1000 person poll represents the US population of over 300 million people, 200 million of which are adults, about the thoughts on socialism? Did you ever take a class in statistics in college?

Moderator: Readers, please do not turn this discussion into a debate on socialism versus capitalism. The subject is Obama's policy toward Cuba.

The embargo on Cuba was a failure from day one from all points of view, it didn’t bring down Communism in the Caribbean so it failed in its objective, if anything it made Cuba stronger. On top of this it showed the rest of Central & Latin America how the US went about things, it showed them that even though the objective was a pointless failure the US was keeping it going seeming out of spite & having lived in Latin America for many years I really can assure you that that is how most Latinos view the USs actions against Cuba, just small, mean & nasty. That isn’t to say that anybody was being supportive of Cuba, but the attitude of the US towards Cuba turned Latinos against the US. Granted there are a lot more issues than Cuba that influence Latino thinking on the US, but watching this embargo drag on year after year doing nothing that would bring about change in Cuba while at the same time Cuba was able to use the embargo as a rallying point for it’s people just made the US look at though it was a country that was not t be trusted. A country that never had & never would have any respect for any of the other American countries.

I am still waiting to see how Obama shapes up & it is still early days yet, if he follows through with the logic so far & at the very least opens up trade with Cuba (if not positive diplomatic relations) then he will have started the process that will eventually bring down Communism in Cuba.

As yet I still don’t trust Obama, the media machine has done a good job selling him to the world, he talks well & looks as though he means what he says, but I would tell anybody to wait until the end of at least his second year before they start trying to turn him into the worlds saviour. People with power & money in the US get to put forward the man that eventually becomes president & they don’t select pussy cats. Is he a nice man? Possibly. Is he what we are being shown? I doubt it. Bush was too obviously an idiot & too obviously supported by serious power & money. Obama is putting on a far better show but may not be any better for either the US or the world.

Obama is no idiot like Bush was. The Cubans, the Venezuelans etc..feel that finally they have an American president who is smart enough to have a decent conversation about many topics. Can we even imagine Chavez giving that idiot Bush any kind of reading material?? No!! Unless it had many nice colored pictures. If America doesn't start trying to jump start it FTAs (free trade agreements with Latin American countries) don't complain when the Chinese, Indians, Russians, Arabs etc..do. Latin America is more than just little Cuba. Little Cuba is seen by Latins as the proverbial "David" against that big, evil stupid gringo giant (Bush and Cheney) Cuba needs the USA ($$$$) the USA does not need Cuba. To many people around the world, seeing the world's most powerful country put an economic embargo on a tiny island nation seems strange. As far as I know their are no more Russian missiles pointing at Washington DC from Cuba. If the US helped Cuba and all of Latin America with more FREE TRADE, not just charity that gets squandered away, then and only then would gringos get cheaper bananas, mangoes, etc..and poor folk in Nicaragua etc..would have more to eat than just a couple of beans and rice if they are like once a day.

Can we even imagine Chavez giving that idiot Bush any kind of reading material?? No!! Unless it had many nice colored pictures.

You do realize that Chavez gave Obama a copy of "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" a book that criticizes years of European and U.S. colonization in Latin America.

Chavez knows the Obama is a clown is an inexperienced dope. If he were acting like a real U.S. president and putting all these tin pot dictators in their place, Chavez wouldn't even have attempted this stunt.

But Obama accepted the book (written in Spanish, a language he does not read) because it helps him to advance his "No Anti-American Left Behind" agenda.