Obama Will Change Cuba Policy—But How?

Why restrict your own people from leaving their own country.

I am sure if some of the Cubans actually get to see the way the outside world works they will be glad to return back to their homeland.

But at least let them explore the world that is out there. Visit with their families instead of eing stuck on a beautifull island with an invisible fence around it that doesnt allow them out.

I just pray the USA doesnt go in a ruin the quaintness of Cuba.

They surely need finacial help but let them a least keep

their dignaty.

What Raul need t do for his people is take care of the poverty families with no bathroom facitlites poor living conditon etc. yes its nice to be able to have a cell phone a dvd player but work on what is really need in your counrty

I am married to a Cuban and hope and pray to god that one day son he will be abe to come to Canada to live with me.

Just having to pass all this red tape and money reeping is aweful

I just want to be reuntied with my husband

Denise 2:51PM March 05, 2009

The article hit the point - the possibility of off shore oil drilling to satisfy America's continued thirst for energy as it slowly tools up for greener sources. We should learn from Iraq that the lost of American and innocent Iraqi (non-combatants) lives has not help us with our energy thirst... why aren't we getting cheap oil from Iraq's 50 billion barrel reserve? It would be better to use diplomacy and normalize trade relations to gain access to off shore oil. Invading Cuba would satisfy all of the old hard liners who lost their fortunes to Fidel, but it would not be worth the cost of taxpayer money and more American deaths by adding a third prong to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. Military is already spread way too thin, and to fight yet another war for oil rights would cause the feds to reinstate the draft - something the American voting public would no doubt oppose. I say, it can't hurt to talk.

Tony Lee of CA 4:25PM February 24, 2009

First of all, the paradise that everyone seem to think Cuba is right now, has not been for almost 50 years, and the fact that americans are not there makes it harder to make Cuba a paradise again, I know I am cuban and the american presence there would make a big difference in the way things would be looked at, and would allow for rapid changes to take place, people even though they critisize americans, they really envie what we have here and most crave that, what seems to be the problem is that they feel the US wants to take over, colonize, they want to govern themselves without outside interference, but they want the benefits they can get from foreign contact. The embargo is true, has done very little to change the conditions there, proof of it is that the communist goverment there has survive for 50 years making that regime already a dinosaur that stills lingers on. My suggestion is that lift the embargo, let whoever wants to do business there do it and leave them alone, as Queen Elizabeth I said about Ireland in 1580 to kill themselves and so let them. I am insensitive about their situation, because I too have family there, but if they have not done anything to change themselves why should we worry too much. Again Cuban is no paradise as it is now. It is a beautiful Island with potential, but will not change unless we go there not with arms, but with our modern ideas of change and prosperity, people will see and want to emulate us.

Rudy Fuentes of CA 4:44PM February 11, 2009

I certainly don't have anything good to say about the current regime in Cuba but I do think that it is time to ease some of the embargo restrictions. The embargo has not had any positive effects on the Castro government but has placed considerable hardship on the Cuban people who are caught between the rock and the hard place.

I think that if all travel restrictions on US citizens were lifted and they were allowed to spend a reasonable amount during visits to Cuba then it would not be long before the sight of all these well fed, prosperous Americans would begin to stir widespread longing for a better life. When Mikhail Gorbachev started to allow a few freedoms in the Soviet Union, it only a matter of months until the demand for freedom began it's dissolution. The same thing will happen to the Cuban communists when the lie of their artificial economy is exposed to all of their citizens.

Most of their government's strength is in the very old revolutionaries and the young brainwashed generation that were raised to be good young communists. The old ones are dying off quickly and idealism will usually fail in the face indisputable evidence to the contrary.

Joe of TX 11:28PM December 20, 2008