Here we go again.
At a time when the U.S. can ill afford to look any more unilateralist and belligerent to much of the world, up comes another United Nations vote on Cuba.
This week Cuba presents its 14th annual resolution to the U.N. General Assembly against the 44-year-old economic embargo imposed upon it by the United States. Complete with a damages ($86 billion) claim.
Of course, the U.N. is flawed. On a good day. Rogue states can sit on the Security Council. Oil-For-Food turns into graft-for-all. Etc. But it’s the only such world forum we have, and we’ve never needed allies — or just non-adversaries — and favorable worldwide public opinion more than now. It’s integral to our national security goals.
But an embargo that had Cold War merit in 1962 has real world counter-productivity in 2006. It’s not just unfair to Cubans and American business, but it makes it easier for others to self-servingly portray America as the hegemon from hell – and not the country attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.
Last year the vote to lift the embargo was 182 to 4 with one abstention. Voting with the US: Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands. Micronesia abstained.
Don’t look for any significant change — unless this is the year we lose Palau.