Subject: [big campaign] General McCaffrey calls for "A new approach to Cuba"
From: Aniello Alioto <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:37:24 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Friends - As many of you already know, I am currently serving as General
Consultant for the Freedom to Travel Campaign
<http://www.cubacentral.com/>, a very impressive non-profit coalition
that aims to lift the U.S. citizen
ban on travel to Cuba.

With our encouragement, McClatchy jumped on this ed piece from 4-star Gen.
Barry McCaffrey <http://mccaffreyassociates.com/pages/bio.htm>and has so far
(as I have been able to find) gotten ink in the Miami
Herald<http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/inbox/v-fullstory/story/1109984.html>,
Bellingham Herald
<http://www.bellinghamherald.com/321/story/961086.html> & Cleveland
Plain Dealer<http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/06/a_new_approach_to_cuba.html>...
hopefully more to come.

There's some spicy language in there that I think you will like.

If you need any back info on this, or ever need info Cuba in general, just
say the word.

Aniello
502.664.2420

~~~~~~~~~~
A new approach to Cuba BY BARRY R. MCCAFFREY www.mccaffreyassociates.com

ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Obama administration has made an excellent first step
to eliminate some restrictions on travel to the island, to loosen
constraints on remittances and to re-engage in migration talks. Positive,
multiple lines of engagement are clearly the way forward. Broader contact
and leverage with Cuba through additional commercial and people-to-people
contacts will in time help promote a more pluralistic, less impoverished,
and more open society.

While President Obama's incremental changes in policy toward Cuba are
positive, they are also insufficient. Now is the time for decisive and
rational efforts to bring Cuba back into full engagement with the economic
and political dynamics of the Americas.

For starters, we're still a lot closer to the status quo than to the
decisive break from past policies, which is where we need to be. The status
quo is a loser. The long-term U.S. government policy of isolating the Castro
regime has failed to bring about either democracy or regime change. Cuba has
broken out of the box and created well-established diplomatic and economic
relations with a range of international partners -- China, Russia, Mexico,
Brazil, and members of the European Union. The Castro regime has
successfully survived multiple economic and natural disasters (e.g. ending
of Soviet economic support) at significant cost to its people.

Second, there are both economic and security incentives for moving forward.
The Cuban state has been unable to meet the economic and democratic
aspirations of the Cuban people. Cuba must double their economy within the
coming decade. Its ability to do so, always doubtful given the regimented
dullness of that Marxist state, is in greater question now, lashed as its
economy has been by last year's horrendous storms and the continued
battering of the global financial crisis. The hard-liners here who are
counseling that we tighten the noose now in hopes that we'll break the
regimes back would allow average Cubans to suffer mightily, put our security
interests at risk with a massive boatlift, and turn the rest of the region
against us for decades. Strangulation is no solution.

Political transitions from authoritarian to democratic regimes have
successfully occurred in Latin America and Eastern Europe following decades
of dictatorship. The poor Cubans will almost have to start from scratch in
building the political institutions that are essential to good governance
and participative policy making. Continuation of ineffective and punitive
U.S. diplomatic and economic policies will not accelerate political
transition on the island. In fact, this failed strategy of political
isolation is used by the Castro Regime as a rallying point. The United
States has become the raison d'etre of this regime's continued defense of
its failed experiment with a directed, authoritarian, socialist state.

It's time for a realistic policy shift on Cuba. In my judgment, Congress and
the administration should move to:

*• Remove* Cuba from the State Department list of State Sponsors of
Terrorism. The poverty of ideas and resources forced the Cuban government to
end its ineffective support of revolutionary movements long ago.

*• Repeal* enforcement of the ''Helms-Burton'' legislation. Both Presidents
George W. Bush and Bill Clinton signed provisions allowing for waivers of
the outmoded law's provision.

*• End* the economic embargo on Cuba. Market forces should determine the
level of trade between our nations.

*• End* U.S. restrictions on travel by American citizens to Cuba. There are
no similar restrictions to other non-democratic nations, including North
Korea.

*• Close* the detention facility at Guantanamo and return the base to Cuban
sovereignty. The place has become an international embarrassment to us.

*• End *the ''Wet Foot/Dry Foot immigration policy'' and treat illegal
immigrants from Cuba as we do those from Mexico or any other country.

*• Formalize* coordination on anti-drug trafficking matters with Cuba's law
enforcement and security forces.

*• Provide* significantly increased funds to the U.S. Agency for
International Development so that we can support economic development as
democratic political transition inevitably occurs in Cuba.

*• End *U.S. opposition to Cuban participation in the Western Hemisphere
multilateral fora (lifting Cuba's suspension from the OAS was a good start)
because diplomacy and engagement, not shunning, will open Cuba to liberal
political ideals.

We should not doubt that there will be an eventual political transition in
Cuba. Change is now inevitable as Castro edges off the stage of history. The
critical issue for the United States is whether we are going to be a
constructive guiding agent in this process of change.

The United States has enormous power to unilaterally change policy toward
Cuba and shape the agenda of change. We do not have to negotiate with the
Cuban government to modify the ways we deal with illegal migrants from the
island. Modifying punitive economic and travel policies should not be viewed
as making concessions to an authoritarian regime. Instead, they should be
viewed as a belated recognition that our past policies were ineffective and
will not promote democratization in Cuba. Obama is uniquely positioned to
take these decisive steps and he should do so.

* Barry R. McCaffrey is a retired Army general and an adjunct professor of
international affairs at West Point; he served as U.S. drug czar from 1996
to 2001.*

©2009 McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

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