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This must be the sort of thing President Obama meant when he talked about"more flexibility" after elections.Relations with Cuba are to be normalized.

Let's try to sort this out dispassionately. Cuba isn't a topic that often lends itself to calm and collected discussion but let's try.

Take the response of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is appalled the U.S. will open an embassy soon in Havana (at present, the U.S. has an office in the Swiss embassy there and an envoy housed in tropical splendor in Miramar).

"This is going to do absolutely nothing to further human rights and democracy in Cuba," Rubio told The Associated Press. "But it potentially goes a long way in providing the economic lift that the Castroregime needs to become permanent fixtures in Cuba for generations to come."

The first part of Rubio's take is unquestionably correct. Castro is a Communist thug and that's his romantic persona. He and his ilk put thousands up against the wall and thousands more in foul prisons for vicious crimes ranging fromdemanding a free press to being attracted to the same sex.

What the world needs are fewer and better Castros; ridding it ofdespotic killers like Che Guevara was a plus. So it's maddening to see American liberals who think both are good guys and who'd like to see a little more of the Cuban experiment here.

But take the second part of Rubio's remark. Castro has already been a permanent fixture in Cuba for generations. If the embargo's goal is toppling Castro it hasn't worked. That doesn't mean the goal isn't a noble one, simply that clinging to an unsuccessful policy isn't sensible.

From time to time, especially from Havana, one hears the embargo hurts Cubans. This has it backwards. Castro hurts Cubans. State run economies are disastrous for people. If anything, Cuba refutes Marxism even more than the Soviet Union's collapse, because if Castro can't make a go of it on a Caribbean island with massive aid from Russia, practically free energy from Venezuela and full trade with every country but the U.S., then fellow travelers in America need to upgrade their thinking.

Still, disgust with the intelligentsia is no guide for foreign policy. The U.S. should not maintain the Cuba embargo to spite the dupes among us.

There's also an inconsistency in the American position. TheChinese Communists have murdered more than any political group on earth. The U.S. and China have had formal relations since 1972.

See the article here:
The Cuban embargo and Castro's Communism: James Varney/Thursday chat