The Unplanned Castro Handshake. Big Deal Or No ?
Offline Me personally I do not see much of a big deal about this. Politicians shaking hands with each other, even adversaries and enemies is nothing new. At least that is my opinion
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25324942
White House says Obama-Castro handshake 'not planned'
President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro's handshake at Nelson Mandela's memorial service was unplanned, the White House has said.
White House aide Ben Rhodes told reporters the two exchanged nothing more substantive than a greeting.
The Cuban government said the gesture may show the "beginning of the end of the US aggressions".
The US broke off diplomatic ties with Cuba in 1961 as Fidel Castro aligned with the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
And on Tuesday after the handshake, a White House official said the Obama administration still had grave concerns about human rights violations in Cuba, Reuters reported.
Republicans on Capitol Hill were quick to condemn the gesture, with one Republican congresswoman chiding the move during an unrelated hearing on Tuesday.
"Sometimes a handshake is just a handshake, but when the leader of the free world shakes the bloody hand of a ruthless dictator like Raul Castro, it becomes a propaganda coup for the tyrant," Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is known for her opposition to the Castro government, told Secretary of State John Kerry.
"Could you please tell the Cuban people living under that repressive regime that, a handshake notwithstanding, the US policy toward the cruel and sadistic Cuban dictatorship has not weakened."
Gradual thaw disrupted
The last time a US president shook a Cuban leader's hand was in 2000, when President Bill Clinton greeted President Fidel Castro, Raul's brother and predecessor, at a UN General Assembly meeting.
Under President Obama, the US has eased restrictions on Cuban-Americans travelling to the island and on remittances between family members across the two countries.
But the gradual thaw has been disrupted by the detention in Cuba of a US contractor.
Alan Gross, 64, was arrested four years ago while on a project to provide internet access to Cuba's small Jewish community.
On the fourth anniversary of his arrest, he wrote to Mr Obama to say he feared the US government had "abandoned" him, and asked the US president to intervene personally to help win his release.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
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Cuba is one of the most laughable scenarios in US history. A thousand years from now, provided there are still people to talk about it and they know what happened, Cuba will be hailed as being the ultimate example of US hypocrisy and stupidity.
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No when you consider deliberate visits and handshakes from other politicians such as McCain pictured hugging CASTRO and visiting Gadaffi and pictures of Bush and Regan meeting our enemies.
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No big deal, and not worth the hype, (it was Raul NOT Fidel). Americas' prestige would have suffered worldwide had he deliberately NOT shaken hands, a quick shake and onto the next set of hands, something politicians do all the time and so automaticley that Obama may not have noticed who he was; Raul's face is not so well known has his big brother Fidel's.
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If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
cuba is not our fucking enemy and never has been. when did cuba ever make an aggressive move toward the united states? (and no, installing soviet missiles as an act of national defense does not constitute aggression.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
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cuba is not our fucking enemy and never has been. when did cuba ever make an aggressive move toward the united states? (and no, installing soviet missiles as an act of national defense does not constitute aggression.)
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
I think having free trade with Cuba would be extremely beneficial for both countries, so it the handshake means Bama is going to rebuild relations with Cuba that is great. Unfortunately, a handshake is often just a handshake.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
As always, you're an idiot.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.