Cuban embargo hurts freedom
Re “The Castro fixation,” Opinion, Oct. 31
The president is wrong. It is not his job to promote freedom in Cuba. His job is to protect freedom in the United States. Instead, he continues to destroy every American’s freedom to peacefully meet and trade with the Cuban people. Ending the embargo, the president claims, would only help the Cuban dictatorship. He’s wrong again. Engagement will loosen the dictatorship’s grip. U.S. engagement with China provides an illustration of the subversive power of freedom. Millions of Chinese who live on Taiwan have visited their Chinese relatives on the mainland, yielding millions of conversations such as, “We share Chinese culture and genetics. But we on Taiwan are 30 times richer than you on the mainland. Why?” Their answers doomed the mainland’s command-and-control economy. Cuban Americans could have similar conversations inside Cuba -- with the same subversive effect.
The president should favor an authentic freedom agenda of trade and tourism. Minor adjustments cannot salvage the 45-year-old failure of embargo.
Mike Binkley
Laguna Woods
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