Sorry King, but "social reform" isn't something most Americans would trade for freedom, and that's the deal with the devil in place in Cuba. When's the last time they had a free election? What's their equivalent of the 1st amendment of the US Constitution? Or the 2nd, for that matter? Or various and sundry other ones? I'm guessing that if you ran for office in Canada on Fidel's program for the last 50 years--not what he promised to do, but what he delivered--a majority of Canadians would also vote against making that deal with the devil.

I remember when the late CIA defector Philip Agee, resident in Cuba, came to give a speech at Iowa State. I hit him with the last question during Q&A: "Mr. Agee, do you think a former officer in the Cuban Intelligence Service could give a speech like you just have given, on the campus of a university in Cuba? And if your answer is no, doesn't that tell us something important about the difference between our two societies?" He stuttered and stammered about Cuba being "under attack" from the United States, so certain freedoms had to be curtailed. Laughable.

Question on universal health care in the United States: Do I get to keep the excellent coverage I have now, both as a fringe benefit of my wife's job and my status as retired military? Or do I got thrown into the same pot with everyone else? Any chance I can "opt out" if I wish to do so? I think that's the problem many Americans are going to have with universal health care if it's some sort of a universal mandate: Why should I trade what I have now, and like, for something that might not be as good?