I hope you're wrong, Spaw, but I suspect you may be right. The thing that amazes me about Cuba is that I really can't figure out what it is that they did to us that made us so upset. True, they took their country back from an oppressive elite that had been kept in power with the aid of American corporate dollars; true, they embraced a Marxist/Leninist philosophy, and got cozy with the USSR (once they knew the big powerful country to their north wasn't going to be nice to them, so they better make friends with somebody else); true, they foiled our inept attempt at a US-sponsored coup at the Bay of Pigs. Viewed rationally, all they did in all three of these examples was to stand up for themselves when we tried to bully them. So WE are upset at THEM?

After last year's Elian fiasco, I really hoped that my country would wake up and start to take a more rational and constructive approach to our relations with Cuba. I really think that we could do more for the Cuban people, and for the people of the United States, by taking some positive steps to reduce tensions, with an eye to normalizing relations betwen our two countries. Our current approach is pointless, and is only being driven (still!) by a small Cuban expatriate community in Florida, and their ability to throw their weight behind whichever candidate or party agrees to keep the hostility going. It makes for a truly depressing situation, in my opinion.