Correcting Some Bush Arrogance

But Two Big Ones Remain

         As of today -- Monday, July 27th, 2015 -- the Cuban flag has been flying exactly one week over its embassy in Washington for the first time since 1961. That was made possible when the U. S. removed Cuba from its short list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Today...Wow!...the U. S. removed Cuba from its short list of nations that Fail To Combat Human Trafficking. Cuba had been on that list since 2003 as one of the endless methods the George W. Bush administration used to callously hurt Cuba and its people.

         Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs, had a long reaction in Havana today that is both acute and astute, and therefore worth paraphrasing, summarizing and pondering: "OK, so we're off the Terrorism list. Now we're off the Human Trafficking list. Thanks a lot. We didn't deserve being on either. So, the U. S. -- for 18 more months -- happens to have a decent President with some executive privileges. But, mostly, the U. S. has a dysfunctional Congress that sells out to the highest bidder, which includes partisans in Miami. What we need...both countries...is decent input from American citizens who still, in their democracy, have some say -- not much, but some -- in the war-like, special interests actions of Congress. Terrorism and Human Trafficking, huh? What about removing Cuba from the sins of the embargo? What about returning Guantanamo Bay to its rightful owner? Congress still dictates those two things, which essentially means that a great democracy is trampled down by bought-and-paid-for dictators." Vidal will see the U. S. open its new embassy in Havana next week, and then she will attend the ceremony on August 14th when Secretary of State John Kerry shows up to officially raise the U. S. flag at its new embassy, which will be staffed with more "diplomats" than any U. S. embassy anywhere else in the world. The embargo and Guantanamo Bay still loom large in Vidal's mind. Thus, it wouldn't take much for her to agree to a dismantling of flags, detente, and other aspects of President Obama's thawing of Cold War-era cruelty.

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