EMBARGO, SHMEMBARGO: IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME
As el Comandante makes his exit, Stephen Hugh-Jones takes a moment to skewer the American trade embargo on Cuba. Not only does it rank among the longest-lasting geopolicy failures in history, but the EU is making the same mistake with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus...In sum, since the 1980s the EU has been trying, like the United States since the 1960s, to get rid of a regime it disapproves of through impoverishment; a regime, moreover, which, unlike Castro's, practises a tolerable version of democracy, and has never posed any threat to the EU's interests, let alone offered to install the nuclear missiles of its enemies. Like the US, the EU has failed. Yet, like the US, it persists.The EU accepted the break-up of Yugoslavia; indeed most big EU countries have just rushed to recognise the dismemberment of Serbia by Kosovo's Albanians, which--however strong their claims--threatens the peace of Europe far more than does the existence of the TRNC. Nor can one reasonably try to starve a nation into changing its mind, let alone one that threatens nobody. The EU doesn't try that with Iran or North Korea, still less Cuba. It does try with the Turkish-Cypriots.
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