Obama’s Cuban Folly

Frank Gaffney spoke to Congressman Jeff Duncan of South Carolina today on Secure Freedom Radio and asked Duncan for his opinion of Obama’s decision to visit the Castro regime in Cuba.

Duncan is not impressed:

“This is the longest dictatorship in the western hemisphere, the Castros will be bolstered by opening relations with Cuba and the United States. Nothing’s changing down there for the Cuban people, they’re still being oppressed and will continue to be oppressed. Nothing could be more clear than Cubans still fleeing Cuba to get to the United States… And now you’ve got the president of the free world going down to personally meet with a despotic person and regime…I think it sends a terrible signal.”

Gaffney asked if the American taxpayer could end up being the life support system for this oppressive regime. Duncan responded in the affirmative saying the American people are going to end up supporting communism now, whereas we used to stand up for freedom and the ideals America represents.

Their conversation naturally led to the ongoing issue of Guantanamo Bay. Duncan revealed that he has drafted a bill which only needs approval from the House that will give congress the ability to sue President Obama over his attempt to bring Gitmo detainees to America. Duncan also said that much of this is going to come down to House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Later in the broadcast, Gaffney spoke to Dr. Frederick Kagan, director of the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute.

Gaffney asked Kagan about John Kerry’s Syrian ceasefire which is supposed to go into effect this weekend. Kagan didn’t paint a pretty picture:

“The ceasefire is a fascinating phenomenon. The Russians have perfected the art of calling for ceasefires as an opportunity to consolidate military gains that they’ve made and prepare themselves for the next offensive operation. They have turned this into high art in Ukraine where they managed to persuade Kerry and the White House to accept them as mediators, despite the fact that they’re belligerents. They have now copied this approach to Syria… It allows them to continue attacking all the groups they designate as terrorists, which include almost all of the groups we support.”

Gaffney asked Kagan about the military ramifications of this and if he sees any course correction coming. Again, Kagan was not hopeful:

“What I would say is that we have the fundamental problem that the White House and the State Department are living in a bubble of unreality that does not correspond with what is actually occurring in the real world.”

Perhaps the president can contemplate that during his trip to Cuba.