Do you think it's time for the US to normalize relations with Cuba?
542930
one of the biggest problems with the US is that we don't have a "long view" when it comes to diplomacy.  If you look at the US's involvement, or lack thereof in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Panama, China, Cuba, Venezuala, etc., you see over and over again that the US has made short-sighted decisions that have proven disasterous in the long run.\n\nNoriegra, Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were all backed by the US at one point, as was the Taliban, the Afghani warlords, Ho Chi Mihn, etc.  Saddam Hussein got his WMDs from the US originally, then we act suprised when he used them and used it as an excuse to attack 20 years after the fact.\n\nI wouldn't expect the US to suddenly start making good diplomatic decisions.\n\nI hope you don't mind, but I'm going to copy this answer for your question about China and Taiwan.
564415
I hope so.  It is time to liberate the Mexicans from the Junta that runs their nation.  Think of the benefits we would enjoy with the oil reserves of Mexico....plus it would stabalize democracy in a region that is dominated by socialist thugs and autocrats.\n\nSound familiar.
111588
Why?  Is the flag needing another star?  What will we do with the Virgin Islands and Pueto Rico ?  Empire building for its own sake is not a good thing.  Why not invade Itally ? \nI don't see the rationale and there are limits to what kind of burden the US economy and military can manage as it is.\nWhat's there? Baseball players, sugar cane, and a few decent musicians ?   Why not invade Columbia and free them from drug lords...but the key reason not to invade Cuba is that CUBA HAS NO OIL.\n\nVenezula had better watch out.
952590
There is NO doubt we have taken his rule for granted.  And there is no doubt the state dept incorrectly thinks there will be a "crack in the armor".  Let's face it they haven't done a very good job on foreign policy.\n\nI believe Castro's brother Raul would be the new dictator.\n\nI actually believe we should normalize relations now to martyr Castro making his successor less powerful.
591556
More than anything else, I think it started out of embarassment. When Fidel Castro came out of nowhere to lead his people against a very corrupt regieme led by Bautista, it was like he was a Latino John Kennedy. We welcomed him here in the US. The problem was, of course, that much of the corruption was tied up with the American Mafia and gambling cartels. They did not take very well to being kicked out of Cuba. \n\nThen there was Fidel's Socialist leanings. He was a man of the people, right? He and Che Gueverra saw themselves as liberators. The revolution would not be confined to just Cuba but might well be exported to all the corrupt North American dominated regimes. The US could not stomach that. Trade started getting "difficult."\n\nFidel appealed to a nation very interested in establishing a Western Hemisphere base of influence, the Soviet Union. This was the era of a very hot "Cold War" with Nikita Khruchov taking off his shoe and banging it on the desk in the UN threatening the US with "We will bury you!" The Soviet Union even went so far as to send guided missiles to Cuba. John Kennedy was President at the time. It seemed as though the US and the Soviet Union were going to nuclear war over Cuba. The Soviets withdrew their missiles.\n\nFidel stayed on. The US took in Cubano refugees. Some of them launched attempts to topple Fidel's government. The CIA may have even tried to assassinate him.  There were rumors that Cuba was behind the JFK assassination plot.\n\nSo, Cuba has remained only 80 miles off the Florida shores. And the US still has a base there where the prisoners from the latest war are kept. Strange, huh? Yet, we still do not trade with them.
424325
Yes.  My two cents...  Expect relations to thaw the day Castro passes away (soon).  Everything is set in place for a thaw in relations, however waiting for a new leader would carry far less political risk than forgiving Castro himself.
41514
I don't know. They haven't involved in military activities since WW2 until recently. But I think we can give them a chance, besides do you think we can fully trust USA? It's a good way to make a balance of power (without having a cold war).
648452
Apparently, they are fleeing a communist regime. Just because Cuba is communist doesn't mean that it is the worst country in the world for its citizens. Try Haiti. Try countries in Africa. Try Southeastern Asia. Try Afghanistan. Our immigration laws should be more compassionate and should strive to help those who are MOST IN NEED. It shouldn't help illegals that broke the law. It shouldn't help those who the US wants to immigrate here just so that the government can embarass Castro. IT HASN'T WORKED IN 40 YEARS!!!!! Cubans should go through the process LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!!!!
752327
Cuba still lets the USA use Guantanamo bay as a Navy base, and the States had to ask and recieve permission to house prisoners there. I suspect there might be closer ties than either side admits. ?But then again I am just a paranoid conspiracy theorist.
457872
I think Castro has done a beautiful job of keeping America out of Cuba. The people there actually have health care, and are highly educated. I have read it was better than 90% of the people, and that is better than the United States. When Castro dies, I am sure America will do a take over most likely. We will just have to see, wont we?
946215
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the UN to help with anything, especially in the human-rights department.\n\nThis is the same organization that, just a day or two ago, voted down an amendment that would have called on Cuba to curb its human rights abuses.\n\nThis happened on the same day that the UN passed a resolution calling on the U.S. to end its Cuba embargo.\n\nThat's the UN for you -- silence with regard to Castro's human-rights atrocities, while lecturing us to do business with that bastard.\n\nSo, since the UN is so wimpy with regard to Castro, there's no reason to believe they can do much of anything about Nigeria or anything else in the human-rights arena.\n\n.
633899
The Mexican, Cuban, and other foreign people need a place to go where they will be accepted. If this place happens to be America then so be it. Its inhumane to shoot people trying to cross the boarder or to send them back to Cuba after traveling across a fairly substantial strentch of water. We're the great American melting pot and it would be great if that could continue  peacefuly.
1132536
Rescind all of the 750 Bush presidential orders which override law\n\nThat any party could bring impeachment of a president to the floor for a vote!\n\nWars have to be declared before any action is taken, and they must present the evidence to the people.\n\nKennedy didn't hide behind National security as an issue in Cuba!
310943
Yes, and Us supported Pinochet in Chile, Batista in Cuba and many more bloody dictators, as show the link below.  Do you know that US give Israelis arms to kill palestinans? USA are not so friendly.
1127452
I hope the answers given by the Americans on here , aren't representative of the views of all Americans. There's got to be SOME Americans who are good guys. \nAs previously mentioned by others, only more eloquently, America invaded and 'stole' this bay about 100 hundred years ago, as it was strategically sited for access to the whole of the Caribbean. (It has carried out this strategy many times since, all over the world). To make it look legal, the US sends Cuba a 'rental cheque' every year, which Cuba has never cashed.\nEffectively, the US are squatters in Cuba, they have no linternationally recognised legal right to be there.
1091747
I also feel this law is outdated and should be abolished.  In fact, just tonight, I watched a show on TV that said that some years back the Cuban government released all of their worst criminals and put them on shoddy boats aimed towards the USA in order to get rid of their worst criminals and take advantage of the stupid foot on dry land law for Cubans.  I don't understand why the USA isn't quicker at changing laws that are outdated.  Other countries are so quick to take advantage and they obviously keep right up to the minute on what our laws are.  \n\nRegardless, we still have laws about immigration and I want them enforced and I want ALL illegal immigrants deported and I want this done asap, regardless of the cost, because I believe the cost will be less to the American taxpayers in the long run.  If our immigration laws are outdated, they should  be updated, and if things take too long, they should be changed so that applications can be expedited, but the USA has a right to determine who they want for immigrants and how many of them they want and where they should live and what types of jobs they will do.  It is unfair that they flock to certain states and towns and so overburdening the social services, school systems, corrections systems, and medical care of those areas.  With proper immigration systems, people are told where they can go.  The immigrants aren't the ones to decide where they will go - the government has the say as to where they can go.  With illegal immigration - they flock to wherever they want and this causes some areas to be overburdened and without the proper tax basis to support them and actually causing a negative effect on the legal US citizens and immigrants in those areas.\n\nThere is a real, sane reason why a country should have a say in who gets in and where they will go.
1109497
Sadly, I don't think the U.S. has an official position on the situation in the Congo.  In some respects, it is understandable that other areas would gain our focus right now, but I think our foreign policy has suffered recently, because of that.