They are debanked from the global financial system due to US sanctions on any business who trades with Cuba
They can’t trade in US dollars, the global currency that nations most typically use for international trade
They can’t follow normal shopping lanes because boats going to Cuba have to stay away from US ports for 180 days
Any company can be sued by any American alleging they have benefitted Cuba
Also, the United Nations has voted unanimously multiple times to drop the sanctions on Cuba- only USA and Israel vote no. To say that it’s a myth that Cuba has been adversely affected by the US actions is plainly stupid.
Why should the USA be forced to do business with a communist dictatorship? Countries are free to trade or not with other countries as they choose. They're welcome to set up their own alternative financial systems and currencies. Not our problem.
The blame here is 100% on the Cuban government. If they want to improve conditions for their people then all they have to do is free the political prisoners, institute multi-party liberal democracy, and adopt free-market capitalism. If they took those simple steps then it would bring tremendous benefits to their country even if US sanctions remained in place.
This is an opinion piece from a writer who has only 1 other contribution to Al Jazeera. The writer, as stated in the piece, is a former US state department employee, so the pro-Israel stance is not surprising.
In law school, we learn that context is important! OP said: “‘Communism can never work,’ says leader of country that routinely sabotages or outright overthrows communist governments.”
It’s not like Cuba was working great until February 2026.
The context being that you _knew_ the US is sabotaging Cuba right now, but still acted as if it was an outlandish assertion. It shows you are presenting arguments in bad faith.
Which poster are you talking about? The original post from which this stemmed, which I was responding to, was about whether communism ever worked. Insofar as Cuba is a poster child for communism not working, it’s not because of anything Trump did in 2026.
> 2019, the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute adopted an amendment to the definition of war crimes applicable in NIAC detailed in article 8(2)(e). The new article (8(2)(e)(xix) prohibits the intentional use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including the deliberate prevention of relief.
Fuel for cooking food and providing heat is necessary for survival; deliberate prevention of this aid from reaching Cuba is a war crime.
A cruise missile is 3,000,000$ and a shahed drone is 50,000$ so if it’s even remotely the same capability it is an immense technological improvement over an expensive and slow to manufacture cruise missile.
You need a high/low capability that mixes all levels. For example, the Ukrainians and the Russians are both manufacturing very expensove cruise missles (Neptune/Iskander) and long range attack drones (shahed/fp-2/lute/etc). At any rate the original post I was responding to was comparing Switchblades to Shaheds, which is non-sensical.
Part of figuring out where the pieces should go is usually in trying to put them in, because you generally can’t visualize the complete solution in your mind just by looking at all the pieces and only thinking. I don’t think this is a good analogy.
Puzzles have a correct solution that is known in advance, the pleasure consists in the work you do to reach it. It's a bit different when the solution has a beauty in itself.
It's intended as my informed opinion as a response to the parent less informed opinion with questionable sources.
I'm not the one writing a blog and pretending to be an expert. I have some knowledge and I can write what I want.
I know THAAD is against ballistic missiles and not against drones. I know Israeli helicopters have been bringing down drones. So I write that. It's true and I don't need to "source it". This isn't Wikipedia.
They are debanked from the global financial system due to US sanctions on any business who trades with Cuba
They can’t trade in US dollars, the global currency that nations most typically use for international trade
They can’t follow normal shopping lanes because boats going to Cuba have to stay away from US ports for 180 days
Any company can be sued by any American alleging they have benefitted Cuba
Also, the United Nations has voted unanimously multiple times to drop the sanctions on Cuba- only USA and Israel vote no. To say that it’s a myth that Cuba has been adversely affected by the US actions is plainly stupid.
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