President Obama Removes Cuba From Terror List

(This image of Cuba, and its flag, is from ramsar.conanp.gob.mx.)

It has finally happened. President Obama has removed Cuba from the U.S. list of countries supporting terrorism. I had expected some in Congress, especially right-wing Republicans, to try and keep this from happening -- but they didn't. Here is how Taegan Goddard's Political Wire reports it:

"Cuba’s designation by U.S. officials as a state sponsor of terror was officially lifted, the State Department said, clearing a hurdle to re-establishing diplomatic ties between Washington and Havana,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“President Obama recommended to Congress last month that Cuba be removed from the U.S. list, triggering a 45-day congressional notification period in which lawmakers could have challenged the decision. Though Mr. Obama’s Cuba policy has opponents on both sides of the aisle, lawmakers didn’t take steps to do so. The two governments continue to negotiate over the re-establishment of embassies.”

Now the U.S. government needs to remove the useless and embarrassing embargo of Cuba. It has accomplished nothing, and the rest of the world abandoned it long ago.

(This image of the Cuban embargo is from coha.org.)