• Submitted by: manso
• Editorial Articles
• 04 / 01 / 2011

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By Spencer Cadden. Recently, on a trip to Canada, I saw something I forgot existed- a box of cigars labeled "Made in Cuba."

Suddenly, images of a small island to the south of the United States came rushing back to me.Images of cigar smoking, scraggly bearded old men filled my head. So I opened my phone and searched the Associated Press to see how Cuba is doing.

Coincidentally this week, former President Jimmy Carter took a trip to speak with Cuba's current leader, Raul Castro (brother of longtime leader Fidel Castro) as well as Cuban activists and religious leaders. This stunt was similar to the same one he pulled in 2002 and it was all in an effort to improve United States-Cuba relations.

I had to ask myself, why does the United States seemingly hate Cuba so much? Is it our pure hatred of communism or perhaps a secret cigar contract with the rest of Latin America? I had no idea, but I intended to find out more.

As it turns out, Cuba has been big news recently. The Cubans have held an American contractor prisoner for over a year now and intend to keep him in prison for the next 15 years. The contractor Alan Gross worked for a telecommunications company sponsored by the State Department.

Cuban authorities said that Gross was helping set up communication lines to help overthrow the communist regime, which wouldn't exactly surprise me if it were true.

Because Cuba continues to keep Gross in custody, the United States has ceased any and all talks that may have eased some of the tension with Cuba.

Now, I'm not an expert on Latin America, but I do know a few things about Cuba and our relationship with the small island.

Cuba has been run by a communist government since its revolution in 1959.

Shortly after Castro's rise to prominence, the CIA helped train a group of Cuban exiles that were supposed to go back to Cuba and re-take the country.

That whole operation was the complete failure known as the Bay of Pigs.

Since that debacle, Cuba's longtime leader, Fidel Castro, has openly been a communist.

Cuba then continued to push America's buttons by nearly starting WWIII.

During the height of the Cold War, the United States basically intercepted ships that were transporting nuclear and other Weapons of Mass Destruction to communist Cuba.

Because Cuba is only 90 miles from Florida, the United States was pretty pissed and has been ever since. From Cuba's revolution to this day, only one President has actually visited the country: Jimmy Carter.

Why Jimmy Carter? Frankly, I have no idea (although I did have one friend tell me it's because Carter was a socialist). What really confuses me though is our long-term relationship with Cuba. Why do we have yet to open trade with the country? After all, the Cold War is long over.

President Obama even claimed in 2009 that the United States was ready to start talking and possibly even trading with Cuba.

What happened?

Last time I checked, the United States occasionally does some business with China and once in a while we do business with other Latin American socialists/communists.

Heck, we even trade with the former USSR. So why is Cuba such an anomaly?

Cuba gets the same treatment as North Korea. I understand my history on this subject.

I know that Cuba is of course communist, which is a bad word in this country.

I also know that at one time they were receiving weapons from the USSR, which was also a bad thing.

But what has Cuba done to make every single President since 1959 refuse to even touch the subject of ending the embargo on Cuba?

I have heard some pretty outrageous answers to that question.

Honestly, I have no idea why we won't deal with the Castro brothers.

It seems to me that Cuba simply has a history of doing the wrong thing at the wrong time when it comes to United States relations.

First there was the Bay of Pigs fiasco, then we had the Cuban Missile Crisis and now Cuban authorities are holding an American "civilian" hostage.

Even though the most surefire way to end communism in Cuba would be to open trade and let capitalistic ideas enter the mindset of young Cubans, it seems that trade will never happen between our countries.

The United States continues to hold onto a Cold War rivalry that has lasted over 50 years.

Who knows though, maybe Jimmy Carter can change the heart and mind of Raul Castro and Alan Gross will return home.

Maybe the Cuban people will finally enjoy good ole' American freedom.

More likely though, I will keep smoking Dominican cigars.

Source: http://media.www.theonlinerocket.com/media/storage/paper601/news/2011/04...