The American Trade Embargo Against Cuba should be eliminated

C1) Rights of BusinessesFirst off I do not want to call Cuba a terrorist state because they do not use violence against their people anymore. Secondly using that definition there are tons of states that use terrorism on their people, China included. Should we embargo China too? They're communist and have shown clear signs of military build up. Furthermore they have even have said they wish to unify Taiwan with China by force if necessary. So not only do we descriminate against Cuba now days but then create massive trading partnerships with countries that share the exact same values that you want to embargo Cuba for. Cuba is not a terrorist state and have provided no evidence supporting this claim. What groups have they supported? Just because they've talked with Iran they are suddenly terrorist? No. You have failed to capitalize on this point. Many countires on Earth oppress their people, more probably do than don't. Once again you have failed to provide reasons as to why Cuba is so special that they warrent a full blown US embargo. Your Reasons: rumors, schemantics and ancient history.Next is your argument comparing Hitler to Chavez which is a tangent that does not pertain to the argument at hand. You are saying that the embargo by the US, the largest economy in the world, isn't what has caused Cuba, the closest neighbor to the US outside of Mexico and Canada, it's hardships. This is ridiculous. Obviously we have affected those people negatively. The Cubans would be better off if we traded with them, how could they not be? Has the government caused them problems? Absolutley but the US adds to those problems when we could very easily be helping to ease some of them. As for the leverage argument: those other types of leverage did not work on the USSR because they were our equals militarily and influentially. Cuba is certainly not our equal meaning that we could hold leverage over them. Especially militarily, that leverage will work the best and it DID work against the USSR because if you remember the first Cuban missile crisis dissolved away. C2) EconomyI never said that that was the only tenant of Communism but it is certainly a main one and is at the heart of communism. The fact that Cuba is willing to change at all, especially on such an important matter, shows that they are willing to change and might be heading towards a better future. Just because a country is communist does not mean that the people hate the US and all of their ideals. The government might but once again you are punishing 11 million people for the acts of a small few. That is simply unfair. I have shown that the reasons you have presented for us to keep the embargo are either out of date or are inconsistent. We do not treat all countries equally, some of which are the same or worse than Cuba and yet we still trade with them. Why single them out? The West still buys oil from Iran by the boatload despite their status as a terrorist nation as well. We single out Cuba and the hear of the argument is to ask why and you have failed to adaquetly answer this question. Cuba is harmless. Their military is pathetic compared to ours, they have no way to harm us. The Cold War is over and this silly anti-Communist mentality has to die. Communism in and of itself is not evil so why punish them for it? C3) Castro Yes, Iran can harm the US. They have powerful allies and a strong military. Cuba has neither of these. Also I would once again like to reiterate that the Castros are in their 80s. They don't have much time left so lets capitalize on that and open trade now so when they do die we can influence the changing of power so that perhaps it will shift in our favor, the favor of free trade. C4) I did not drop this point. I didn't think there was much to argue. I did combat it by saying that the scenario you pointed out was illogical at best and mostly down right wrong. Why would opening trade to Cuba encourage alliances with Cuba? It wouldn't. Opening trade with Cuba would most likely DISCOURAGE such alliances because then they look like friends to America rather than enemies. Trade would no more encourage such alliances than an embargo does. It does not change the situation.Also, you can't govern by this philosophy. If we did then we need to bomb Iran TODAY because worst case scenario is that they have a nuke, same with Pakistan and North Korea. According to you we must embargo and preferably bomb these nations immidietly in order to respond to the worst case scenario. This is folly. You can't govern like this. You can't lead based on paranoia and rumors like you suggest. Worst case scenario = most irrational and bold action based on little evidence.We can't build relations like this.C5) NegotiationsAny negotiation is better than no negotiation which is why we continue to attempt to negotiate with Iran and North Korea. If we are willing to negotiate with these nations why not Cuba? Why descriminate against Cuba? We don't have half these things with a lot of countries yet still negotiate. There is no reason no to talk with the Cuban government. Once again your argument does not stand up against the practices of the US. C6) Out of Date Embargo The idea is still out of date. It is an old vestiage of the Cold War that stands against communism in a time when our largest trading partner is a one party communist country... It is out of date. Also once again I would like to point out that they would have no incentive to ban together with Iran if the US had not shunned them so thoroughly. C7) BenefitYou have not provided any evidence of Cuban support of terrorism or anything else besides half baked rumors of an alliance that does not even exist at this time. You have failed on this. Also I am talking about the mutual benefit to individual people:Americans get a new beautiful vacation spotCuban families get better food and goodsC8) IdeasThis same technique is used in China, should we embargo them as well? All of these reasons you have supported in defense of the embargo against Cuba are present in China our biggest trading partner which suggests that these things obviously no longer matter to the US which shows that our embargo of Cuba is OUT OF DATE. Technology can only help the Cubans at this point. You can only go up from where they are. In conclusion:You have provided an argument based on rumor and trumped up charges while saying that these things warrent an embargo when we trade with China who displays all the same traits proudly. Apparently the United States government does not share your sentiment or else China would be embargo buddies with Cuba meaning the only thing left to do is lift the embargo and stop descriminating against one of our neighbors. Thank you.