JVLV: SPIRIT OF CHAMBERLAIN INFECTS AMERICA : CUBA, NORTH KOREA, RUSSIA, By Jiri and Leni Friedman Valenta, 12/18/14

This is a sad day for America and democracy.  President Obama has opened diplomatic relations with Cuba without Havana making really meaningful concessions. Meanwhile, cowardly Sony canceled the premiere of a movie Pyongyang found offensive because of North Korean threats to repeat 9/11.  This will only produce more demands by the aggressive, erratic dictator. The president cannot control what Sony does, of course.  What is evident, however, is that the spirit of Chamberlain is poisoning not only the White House, but also American business. In all of this is forgotten that North Korea and Cuba are close strategic allies as they have engaged in illegal arms trafficking through the Panama Canal in recent years as we wrote in the Tico Times.

Karl Marx was wrong about a lot of things, but right in his premise that economic forces tend to determine the politics of international actors.  Cuba was open to compromise at this time because of its deep economic crisis. Oil producer Venezuela, another rogue, socialist state that replaced Russia years ago as  Cuba´s sugar daddy,   can no longer prop up its Cuban ally.  Surely, post-communist Russia, engulfed in its own oil crisis, cannot and will not help the Castro brothers.

With Russia, finally, our policy is working.  However, the President is Johnny-come-lately.  He should have initiated sending lethal defensive arms to Kiev and energy sanctions for Moscow many months ago as we suggested April 21 in the Kyiv Post.   As far as the opening to Cuba is concerned, a genuine one could be desirable.  But Cuba should have committed itself to not allowing Russia´s renewal of an intelligence station, and to the opening of real dialogue with dissidents and progress on human rights, as happened in Eastern Europe 25 years ago.     In the words of Senator Marco Rubio, however,   Obama is “the worst negotiator in the White House.” We already saw that with the Taliban negotiations over Bowe Berghdal.  We also saw it when Obama sent chief spy James Clapper to North Korea, to negotiate the exchange of an American hostage.  Kidnapping a hostage and releasing him for U.S. concessions at an appropriate time for the dictator is the North Korean model that served for the Cuban deal. Coupled with the capitulation by Sony, we are witnessing the spirit of Chamberlain. Pressured by the collapse of the ruble and oil prices, Russian President Vladimir Putin just offered an olive branch on negotiations over the eastern Ukraine.  We should explore it, while providing defensive arms to Ukraine. But while trying to forge an agreement with Putin´s post-communist Russia, a nuclear superpower, over the Ukraine, we must not give in to the demands of orthodox communist dictators. The Chamberlain-like dealings with Cuba and North Korea are a bad signal to ISIS; but also for forging a deal with Putin. We might pay dearly for these tragic mistakes.