How We See It: Time For A Different Approach For U.S., Cuba

Apparently it's good news for Cuba and the Obama Administration that Seth Rogen didn't make his latest movie about an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro.

The president said Tuesday he will end more than 50 years of U.S. policy that freezes out Cuba, the island nation about 90 miles off the Florida coast where Castro's revolution and the Cuban missile crisis chilled relations between the two countries in the late 1950s and early 1960s. An embargo of U.S. goods and services has been in place ever since.

The president's decision is rocking the political world, as Obama makes a choice opposite that of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush.

"We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries," Obama said in a statement to the nation Tuesday. He said his approach will begin a new chapter by eliminating a "rigid policy that is rooted in events that took place before most of us were born."

Not everyone loves the move. U.S. Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, for example, agreed Obama is writing new chapters in American foreign policy. "Unfortunately, today's chapter, like the others before it, is one of America and the values we stand for in retreat and decline. It is about the appeasement of autocratic dictators, thugs, and adversaries, diminishing America's influence in the world. Is it any wonder that under President Obama's watch our enemies are emboldened and our friends demoralized?"

The president isn't actually lifting the trade embargo against Cuba. That would take congressional action, and President Obama has demonstrated his inability on a lot of topics to persuade the folks at the Capitol to follow his lead. So, as is his tendency these days, the president is leading by executive action. He will direct his administrations to restore full diplomatic relations, including plans to open an embassy in Havana.

What is one to think about such a surprising announcement? As with a lot of issues over the last five decades, the details that gave rise to the Cold War relationship between Cuban and the United States have changed dramatically. Ask most Americans about the point to extending the deep-freeze approach and many will be challenged to articulate why it's effective policy. After 50-plus years, isn't it time to try something new? At what point, exactly, do supporters of the continued chill expect the strategy of disengagement to kick in and work?

Couple those questions with the normalization of ties with Vietnam, with which our nation was at war, a mere 20 years after that war ended and the fact relations with Communist China are among the most important for our nation, and one can legitimately wonder why the United States maintains a chip on its shoulder about little Cuba.

The Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University tells us most Cuban-Americans in all age groups below 65 oppose the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Most Cuban-Americans over 65 favor it.

What once made sense isn't the most effective approach nowadays. It's now time to take whatever benefits the U.S. gained by turning its back, but try a different tack.