The embargo has been active since 1960 and has never ended, I’m not sure where you got the idea that it had stopped. And yeah, while it doesn’t directly prevent anyone else from trading with Cuba, it does prohibit anyone who trades with Cuba (or even just enters a Cuban port for maintenance) from trading with the US for the next 180 days, and considering the US is such a major trading partner, that heavily disincentivizes other nations from trading with them, don’t you think?
Either way it’s petty as hell and absolutely still happening, it infringes on Cuba’s right to self determination, and is not what I would call “generally pretty serious about enforcing freedom of navigation” by any stretch of the imagination.
Its amusing how this thread went from the legitimacy of various naval exercises and then shifted to trade policy when that didn’t pan out, which is an entirely different animal, its more of an elephant than a zebra. (It ain’t black and white, definitely grey.)
Trying to get me to defend the Cuba trade embargo ain’t gonna happen, because it really is pointless and harmful. But I like how its conveniently ignored that the rest of the world could easily more than cover what the US refuses to send to Cuba. The US Navy wouldn’t stop them from doing so, because the blockade ended decades ago.
But oddly enough, that doesn’t happen. I wonder why not? Because, oh no, what would the world do without more of those sweet, sweet dollars??? Yeah, never mind the ethics, one can’t forgo profits from trade with the US, so let’s go fuck the Cubans right along with the Americans, and keep our citizens fat and happy with a steady supply of Levis, Big Macs, and movies. But, you know, lets continue paying lip service to how bad it is while making money hand over fist in complicity.
A truly astounding amount of hypocrisy. The US has plenty of hypocrisy to go around too, but at least I am not going to try to defend it.
