President Obama‘s decision to recognize Cuba and attempt another, less belligerent approach to “that imprisoned island,” as JFK described it 52 years ago, is a good move. I’ve never visited Cuba and within a year or two I’ll probably be able to without much difficulty. For the sake of his likely 2016 Presidential run and because he’ll need to appeal to hinterland yahoos, Jeb Bush was obliged yesterday to sound like a hardline enemy of the dictatorial socialists who’ve been running things in Havana since early 1959. But Bush surely knows, and as anyone who understands why Communism toppled in Europe and Russia between ’89 and ’91 will tell you, when a population starts to get a taste for Western comforts, lifestyles and technology, Democratic change is all but inevitable.
Flag of Cuba that’s been hanging above my desk for over a dozen years.
