U.S. Goals in Cuba

Richard Feinberg has an article in Latin America Goes Global on President Obama's Cuba policy, exhorting him to take further measures to stimulate trade. One part in particular merits attention:

To strengthen the pro-reform elements—the strategic goal of U.S. policy—the U.S. government needs to issue clarifying regulations permitting engagement with Cuban state intermediaries. 

This is a key point. Opponents of policy reform claim the administration has loftier goals, thus setting up strawman arguments. Obama is not claiming human rights problems will disappear, that democratization is on the way, or that Cuba will stop criticizing U.S. policy. He has never claimed those things. What the administration aims for is more modest, but modesty is the only way toward success in this case. The administration wants to gradually help pro-reform Cubans gain traction and establish some level of trust.

So the critics are criticizing goals that do not in fact exist. Obama's policy shift should be judged on its own merits, and I agree with Feinberg that the only way forward now is...forward.