EU lifts sanctions against Cuba. U.S. will follow, eventually…

Advocates for America’s puerile, inhumane and hypocritical policy towards Cuba invariably cite Fidel Castro’s dictatorship as justification for sustained hostilities. But all one has to do is cite China – with whose dictators the U.S. courts a very beneficial relationship – to dismiss this justification as demonstrably specious….Long before his first trip to Cuba in 1998, Pope John Paul II decried America’s policy towards Cuba as “oppressive, unjust and ethically unacceptable…. Specifically, he pronounced that ‘imposed isolation strikes the people indiscriminately, making it ever more difficult for the weakest to enjoy the bare essentials of decent living, things such as food, health and education.’

[The iPINIONS Journal, 2005: The Year in Review, p. 79]

In so many ways, the United States has either undermined or forfeited its role as the world’s sole superpower.

The most egregious example in this respect of course is the way it has made a shambles of its once vaunted military power and squandered its international goodwill by invading Iraq. But it is also evident in the way the EU has replaced the U.S. as the arbiter of what is equitable and just in international relations.

And no where is this latter point more manifest than in the way the EU has conducted bilateral relations with Cuba in recent years.

Recall that in 2003 the EU imposed sanctions against Cuba in protest after Fidel Castro imprisoned more than 70 political dissidents. After making its symbolic point, however, the EU began lifting those sanctions two years later when it became clear that the only Cubans being hurt by them were the poor.

Therefore, if the US had any regard for these poor (mostly black) Cubans – who comprise the vast majority of the population – it would have lifted similar sanctions, which it imposed in 1959, decades ago. Instead, the U.S. has systematically tightened those sanctions over the years.

At any rate, it was not at all surprising when the EU announced on Thursday its decision to normalize relations with Cuba.

We see encouraging signs in Cuba and I think that we should show the population in Cuba that we are ready to work with them.

[EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner]

What is significant about this EU decision, however, is that it forces into public consciousness another example of the US’s unilateral aggression towards a country, which can only be described as cruel and inhumane.

Alas, the U.S. appears unmoved:

We’re disappointed in this decision. We think the Castros need to take a number of steps to improve the human rights conditions for ordinary Cubans before any sanctions are lifted.

[National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe]

Nevertheless, there’s cause for hope. Because Barack Obama has pledged to lift many of the more onerous economic sanctions if he’s elected president of the United States in November. And he’s likely to keep this pledge because Miami Cubans – whose political influence has been the driving force behind the U.S. embargo all these years – are not expected to figure prominently amongst his supporters.

So here’s to the EU for demonstrating how to constructively engage Cuba’s repressive dictatorship – for the sake of its oppressed people. Now let us hope the U.S. follows in due course….

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Cuba sanctions, European Union