The New America Foundation launched its 21st Century US-Cuba Policy Initiative at an event headlined by former State Department Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson and Congressman Jeff Flake (R-AZ). The event was moderated by U.S. foreign policy expert Steven Clemons, who directs the American Strategy Program at New America. The event follows the return of Colonel Wilkerson and Mr. Clemons from a trip to Cuba.
Colonel Wilkerson expressed dissatisfaction with the current U.S. policy toward the island, which he described as “the dumbest policy on the face of the earth.” Col. Wilkerson, a longtime assistant to General and Secretary of State Colin Powell, argued that the U.S. should engage Cuba in part to improve its standing in Latin America. People in Latin America are “beginning to like Cuba’s public diplomacy and despise ours,” he said. Moveover, Cuba offers “big bucks signs” as a market for U.S. agricultural goods and “possibly huge bucks signs” as a source of oil for U.S. energy firms, he said.
At the event, Congressman Flake laid out his argument for deregulating travel to and from Cuba by U.S. citizens or legal residents. The Congressman recently introduced a bill, the 'Export Freedom to Cuba Act of 2007,' that calls for this reform. He said travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba is “a matter of freedom.” U.S. citizens should be free to travel anywhere they want, unless there is a national security reason why they shouldn’t, something there isn’t in the case of Cuba. He pointed out that, if anything, it would be a Communist government, not the U.S. government, which restricts travel of its citizens.The New America Foundation launched its 21st Century US-Cuba Policy Initiative at an event headlined by former State Department Chief of Sta...all »The New America Foundation launched its 21st Century US-Cuba Policy Initiative at an event headlined by former State Department Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson and Congressman Jeff Flake (R-AZ). The event was moderated by U.S. foreign policy expert Steven Clemons, who directs the American Strategy Program at New America. The event follows the return of Colonel Wilkerson and Mr. Clemons from a trip to Cuba.
Colonel Wilkerson expressed dissatisfaction with the current U.S. policy toward the island, which he described as “the dumbest policy on the face of the earth.” Col. Wilkerson, a longtime assistant to General and Secretary of State Colin Powell, argued that the U.S. should engage Cuba in part to improve its standing in Latin America. People in Latin America are “beginning to like Cuba’s public diplomacy and despise ours,” he said. Moveover, Cuba offers “big bucks signs” as a market for U.S. agricultural goods and “possibly huge bucks signs” as a source of oil for U.S. energy firms, he said.
At the event, Congressman Flake laid out his argument for deregulating travel to and from Cuba by U.S. citizens or legal residents. The Congressman recently introduced a bill, the 'Export Freedom to Cuba Act of 2007,' that calls for this reform. He said travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba is “a matter of freedom.” U.S. citizens should be free to travel anywhere they want, unless there is a national security reason why they shouldn’t, something there isn’t in the case of Cuba. He pointed out that, if anything, it would be a Communist government, not the U.S. government, which restricts travel of its citizens.«
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