Several prominent Republicans were quick to
criticize the Obama administration for improving diplomatic relations
with Cuba and lifting the state sponsor of terror label. House Speaker John Boehner lamented
that Obama “handed the Castro regime a significant political win in
return for nothing.” GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush complained that
the decision was “further evidence that President Obama seems more
interested in capitulating to our adversaries than in confronting them”.
Not all Republicans were critical of the Obama
administration’s actions, however. Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake
supported the move, arguing that:
Time has gotten away from those who favor the old policy. It’s so yesterday.
In 2014, President Obama relaxed some travel and
trade restrictions with Cuba that helped pave the way to Friday’s
decision. Since Obama lifted those restrictions, some Americans have
been able to travel to Cuba legally by boat or airplane, and trading
between the United States and Cuba has resumed on a modest scale.
With Cuba’s removal from the list of state sponsors
of terror, only Iran, Syria and Sudan remain on the shrinking list of
terrorist supporting nations. Cuba’s inclusion on the list has long been
viewed by critics of the Cuba trade embargo as an unnecessary relic of
the Cold War. Obama’s move to normalize relations with Cuba is a welcome
shift from that outdated policy.
While
some Republicans will continue to bash President Obama for making
diplomatic overtures to the Cuban government, the trade and travel ban
has not made political sense for at least the past decade. Friday’s
decision is a pragmatic and sensible step towards improving relations
between the United States and Cuba. That move was long overdue.
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