Cuba, a good vassal, but incompetent economic state . . .

Obama vows to bury the Cold War in Cuba - FT.com

. . . looks to the US for salvation, Obama throw a lifeline.

This was the correct thing to do, at least the lifeline was correct. The trip to Cuba was an inane photo op for President Golf Pants. Cuba has never been anything but an incompetent economic nation. Without a sugar daddy, Cuba would be Haiti with a better coastline. The USSR stood as sugar daddy until it collapsed, then it was replaced by Venezuela until it collapsed. The US will not be sugar daddy, but will offer trade, tourism, and ideas. Let's see if Cuba can pull this off.

President Golf Pants said he would, “bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas” and called on the young people of Cuba to “build something new”.

Speaking in a televised address, Mr Obama told the 84-year-old Cuban leader Raúl Castro, who was watching from a balcony of the Gran Teatro in central Havana, that he “need not fear the different voices of the Cuban people”.

“Many suggested that I come here and ask the people of Cuba to tear something down,” he said, in a reference to Ronald Reagan’s famous Cold War call in Berlin to “tear down this wall”.

“But I’m appealing to the young people of Cuba who will lift something up, build something new.” A generational change was taking place in the country, he said."

I might suggest they build a tomb to the Castro brothers, but that might be seen as a bit uppity. The Castro's are smart and know this is a lifeline allowing them to eek their leaky barge past their mortal coils, but then all bets are off. It seems likely within a few years that the Americas will finally be free of the tyrannical grasp of International Socialism. 

Obama, of course, does not want to give Reagan the credit for this change, but it is primarily his. With Reagan's Berlin speech, helped by low oil prices, and the US-Soviet arms race, Reagan brought down the Evil Empire, without a shot being fired. Cuba would fall, it was only a matter of time, and money. But I will give Obama credit, for once he actually acted, and accomplished something positive. His usual dithering is too annoying to discuss.

Obama is also correct to crush the Cold War mentality, later in the article we see instances of this, and it is foolish beyond words. It has been 25 years since the fall of the USSR, and we are only now getting around to changing our political reality? The neocons are simply Cold Warriors written small. People who hunger for war, as a mechanism of change. This is not the way to achieve change in our world. The Cold War long over, it is time to realize America's strength is not military. We need to begin exercising American power through a more moral, and ethical framework. We need to seek change through the parties who are in need of change. Sometimes this will mean standing by while the parties engage in warfare, but more commonly, it will mean playing the parent at the table, demanding conciliation, compromise, and ultimately settlement. 

Obama has made the correct decision with Cuba, and he does not have the time in office to do too much damage to this change. Pray for the correct successor, in both nations.

Update: The AP has a story out about the Cuban reaction to parts of the Obama speech. It seems Obama was channeling Reagan!

"Cubans who saw President Barack Obama's speech, which was broadcast on state TV, are jubilant about his calls for greater democracy on the island.

Juan Francisco Ugarte Oliva, a 71-year-old retired refrigeration technician, called Obama's address "a jewel." Ugarte says the American president "dared to say in the presence of the leaders, of Raul Castro, that (Cubans) had the right to protest peacefully without being beaten or arrested."

Barbara Ugarte, a 45-year-old gift shop owner, says she agreed with everything Obama said. She says Cubans "need democracy, freedom of expression."

Cubans expressed a startling degree of openness and anger directed at their own leaders.

Anabel Rodriguez, a housewife, says the speech was "very correct." She praised Obama for speaking about human rights, saying what you think and choosing your own president, 'not those that they impose on you.'"

How much more Republican could he have been?