Cog wrote:The previous administration's easing of restrictions on travel and trade does not help the Cuban people, they only enrich the Cuban regime,
Thats debatable.
I agree with Trump that Obama basically abandoned Cuban dissidents in order to sign an accord with Cuba, but we already know Obama was the world's worst negotiator. Nonetheless there were some good things about this opening up to Cuba.
I visited Cuba last year shortly before Obama opened it up. I went through the process of getting a US permit---I went as part of an "educational" group. I'm very pleased I got to see Cuba before it got buried by hordes of tourists.
Yes the larger hotels like the famous Hotel Nacional in Havana were nationalized by Fidel decades ago, and dollars spent there go straight into the Castro brother's pockets (or the regimes pockets --- in a dictatorship like Cuba there isn't much difference).
But there is a large and growing micro-economy of private restaurants (called paladars), taxi drivers, tour guides, etc. that partly rely on US visitors, and IMHO the creation of a vibrant private sector in Cuba filled people friendly to the US probably does more to undermine the idiotic communist propaganda and the moribund socialist economy that most Cubans are stuck in then the embargo ever did.
Cuban and North Korea are the last two communist countries, and they are like living museums of communism----. I can understand getting tough with North Korea because they pose a real threat, but the Cubans are like our lost brothers.
The parable of the prodigal son teaches us to welcome back our lost sons and lost brothers, no matter where they have been.
Cuba reminds me of the parable of the prodigal son. We should welcome them back as friends and brothers