"The importance of the General's call to end the embargo is hard to understate."

Which shows just how lame the Washington policy establishment is, because all he did is restate what others have been saying for 20 or more years.

I cannot argue with the idea that the importance of Gen. McCaffrey's statement is hard to understate.

Given the fever pitch of this site with respect to this issue -- which may be due to posters' conviction of Cuba's relative importance to American interests overseas, or may be due to their knowledge that Cuba has beaches -- I would have expected a post here to conclude that it would be hard to overstate the importance of McCaffrey's statement.

The undeniable logic of better US/Cuba relations has understandably resulted in no argument from Zathras.

Why in God's name is Barry McCaffrey still being given a forum and taken seriously by our political commentariat? Regardless of his position on this specific issue (with which I agree wholeheartedly), this man (and many more like him) represents everything that is broken and wrong with our political establishment and the process of policy-making.

Cf. David Barstow's excellent reporting here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/washington/30general.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

and when are these american superheros going to take on the israeli lobby...you know the one...the one that is bribing the congressmen with making sure they get the head position on intelligence matters among elected officials....

not a peep about harman pelosi aipac.

the cuban lobby is old and decrepit...cuba initiated these moves with fidels stepping down...the economy down there is worst than ever before..and i mean ever before, it has never been as bad in cuba for the regular joe on the street.

so now american men with their debauched american currency (peso) can sneak off to cuba on a fishing expedition and prey on the poor women willing to sell their bodies to survive.

so america gets no credit in bringing cuba around on anything.

israel on the other hand is a major war crimes scene aided and abetted by americas super elitist leaders and their cowardly sycophants like these retired generals.

get over it, bouncing around from issue to issue never really taking anything on is emblematic of your problem....you american politico types are cowards just like your politicians....aipac and israel is your dadddy.

http://original.antiwar.com/zunes/2009/04/29/pelosi-the-hawk/

Reports by international human rights groups and from within Israel in recent weeks have revealed the massive scale of war-crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law, committed by Israeli forces during their three-week offensive against the Gaza Strip earlier this year. Despite this, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has steadfastly stood by her insistence that the U.S.-backed Israeli government has no legal or moral responsibility for the tragic consequence of the war.

Good catch Zathras. I didn't notice that slip-up.

When a shill for the reactionary establishment like Barry McCaffrey (who pushed Bush Regime talking points on Iraq while posing as an "independent" military expert) says that we should dispense with the embargo on Cuba, that is a good indicator that viewpoints are shifting on this issue and that we may see major change. That doesn't mean, however, that McCaffrey deserves the least bit of respect. As Col. Hackworth would have said, he is a dancer and a prancer, with no interest other than the main chance for himself.

What John T said.

kaptcha ate a post

It must not like the idea of twin tiered triangulation.

Cuba normalization and offshore infrastructure projects rivaling the TVA can halve the risk and spread out the wealth to terms that will favor the continued profit of American domestic producers.

Cuba keeps the market tighter by dealing with countries in its exhcange model to South America already, rivaling the Chinese/Brazillion influence among emerging OPEC states.

This also works the Saudis, who cede some portions in favor of adding additional influence to establishing an economic structure regionally to assist Palestine. This counters the different factions of policy friendlier to Hamas outright or other different elements feared to be seeded by potential antagonists such as Iran while we engage them to new measure.

The US market splits the cost with Cuba, then halves the remainder of that with the gov't. Nationalization has helped pony up the price of production twice. Overflow goes to ASPR for market back pressure on pricing, strategic insulation, and short trending major sector effeciency for gov't sectors.

Cuba narrows its gains to dealing through existing market channels, they can sell overflow back as well to develop a stronger sharing of interests regionally through those taps. this hedges the China/Saudi confluence(often competing) within emerging OPEC of South America. One directly the other by agreement in return for greater regional leverage.

We gain new markets for grains, they do for citrus, etc. We should still trend ahead cumulatively in terms of other major program pricing for such reasons in terms of commodity pricing.

The same pattern can model gains with Russia to similar agrements of sharing the Bering Straight leases. Again a regional hedge to China as containment. This in return for Russia alleviating pressure on NATO/EU interests.

Containment has been misplaced, and must be addressed in new terms.

*Brazillion in terms of money, Brazilian in terms of politcal capital.

China and Saudi Arabia work that sector heavy right now. Cuba can hedge them, we're basically doing a backdoor Monroe Doctrine with the talks Steve levys up in return for nominal concessions on the Mid East. Turn the tables and cool that pace in return for delivering on items closer to home for both.

China w/North Korea and the Saudis vis-a-vis Cuba offshoring to South American emerging OPECS over a banking buyout to elevate Palestine. There's enough domestic political capital in it to compel the Saudis.

Speaking of China, they have just improved many of their relationships with Taiwan, including air travel. Taiwanese can now fly to Beijing and Shanghai from Taipei w/o passing through Hong Kong, for example. It's a good model for US/Cuba.
http://justworldnews.org/archives/003541.html

The US market splits the cost with Cuba, then halves the remainder of that with the gov't. Nationalization has helped pony up the price of production söve twice. Overflow goes to ASPR for market back pressure söve on pricing, strategic insulation, söve and short trending major sector effeciency for gov't sectors.

Cuba narrows its gains to söve dealing through existing söve market channels, they can sell overflow back as well to develop söve a stronger sharing of söve interests regionally through those taps. this hedges söve the China/Saudi confluence(often competing) söve within emerging OPEC of South America. One söve directly the other by söve agreement in return for greater regional leverage.

Speaking of China, they have just improved many of their relationships with Taiwan, including air travel.

China w/North Korea and the Saudis vis-a-vis Cuba offshoring to South American emerging OPECS over a banking buyout to elevate Palestine.

Speaking of China, they have just improved many of their relationships with Taiwan, including air travel

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