[Cincinatus]

Economic liberalization doesn't necessarily guarantee political freedom. That's the lesson of China. But it does make it possible for it to eventually happen.

The converse is not shown: that the maintenance of such embargoes and restrictions retains totalitarianism. Frankly, the only way Cuba will ever be free is for Fidel to go -- die or be overthrown. He's shown that the latter is unlikely, thus, Cuba will be in chains until his death. Given that, why prop him up by removing the embargo?

[goldstategop]

The reason the embargo hasn't worked is because it wasn't leakproof. If the entire world had joined us in enforcing it, Fidel's totalitarian regime might have disappeared ages ago. There's only so much one country can do if the rest of the world props up our adversary.