The US Embargo Against Cuba The real dividing line in U.

游客2023-12-26  2

问题                      The US Embargo Against Cuba
   The real dividing line in U. S. policy toward Cuba is how best to undermine the Castro regime and hasten the island’s day of liberation. For almost half a century, the U. S. government has tried to isolate Cuba economically in an effort to undermine the regime and deprive it of resources. Since 1960, Americans have been barred from trading with, investing in, or traveling to Cuba. The embargo had a national security rationale before 1991, when Castro served as the Soviet Union’s proxy in the Western Hemisphere. But all that changed with the fall of Soviet communism. Today, more than a decade after losing billions in annual economic aid from its former sponsor, Cuba is only a poor and dysfunctional nation of 11 million that poses no threat to American or regional security.
   A 1998 report by the U. S. Defense Intelligence Agency concluded that, "Cuba does not pose a significant military threat to the U. S. or to other countries in the region. " The report declared Cuba’s military forces "residual" and "defensive." Some officials in the Bush administration have charged that Castro’s government may be supporting terrorists abroad, but the evidence is pretty shaky. And even if true, maintaining a comprehensive trade embargo would be a blunt and ineffective lever for change.
   As a foreign policy tool, the embargo actually enhances Castro’s standing by giving him a handy excuse for the failures of his homegrown Caribbean socialism. He can rail for hours about the suffering the embargo inflicts on Cubans, even though the damage done by his domestic policies is far worse. If the embargo were lifted, the Cuban people would be a bit less deprived and Castro would have no one else to blame for the shortages and stagnation that will persist without real market reforms.
   If the goal of U. S. policy toward Cuba is to help its people achieve freedom and a better life, the economic embargo has completely failed. Its economic effect is to make the people of Cuba worse off by depriving them of lower-cost food and other goods that could be bought from the United States. It means less independence for Cuban workers and entrepreneurs, who could be earning dollars from American tourists and fueling private-sector growth. Meanwhile, Castro and his ruling elite enjoy a comfortable, insulated lifestyle by extracting any meager surplus produced by their captive subjects. [br] According to Paragraph 2, some officials in the Bush administration prefer ______economic sanctions against Cuba.

选项 A、easing
B、lifting
C、maintaining
D、strengthening

答案 C

解析 态度细节题型。答案是C。本题信息点的位置比较明确,可根据题干直接跳到第二段寻找答案。需要注意的是,该段对美国国防情报局、布什政府部分官员及作者三者的态度均有涉及,此处考查的是布什政府部分官员的态度。如果答题者留意到charge一词,且了解其有“指责”之意,应当可以立即判断出布什政府部分官员对卡斯特罗政府持否定态度,据此排除掉A(放松制裁)和B(取消制裁)两个选项。再结合前文及此段最后一句话可知,随着古巴的威胁逐渐式微,美国本土的争论焦点在于是保留还是取消制裁,并不存在加强制裁的可能性,故排除D。本题核心:明确考查的行为主体,找准态度相关核心词。
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