As my longtime readers will remember (yes, both of you), I have an ongoing beef with the State Department's list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. The list has always been more about politics than any objective assessment of how much support a government gives to terrorist groups. In fairness, coming up with an objective list would be hard, and a fairer list would probably end up imposing some serious sanctions on close allies, if not ourselves.
So instead we have a list of countries that the U.S. has serious issues with that can (and has) been used as a bargaining chip with when the U.S. deals with countries it has had difficulties with in the past. Which is what seems to be happening with Cuba. But there is a problem. For much of its existence, Cuba has been the one non-Muslim country on the SSoT list. Having a token non-Muslim country is important, because it means that the list isn't just slapping the "supporting terrorism" label on Muslims for activities that many more countries do. I can imagine Cuba coming off, but I think they need a new token first.
So instead we have a list of countries that the U.S. has serious issues with that can (and has) been used as a bargaining chip with when the U.S. deals with countries it has had difficulties with in the past. Which is what seems to be happening with Cuba. But there is a problem. For much of its existence, Cuba has been the one non-Muslim country on the SSoT list. Having a token non-Muslim country is important, because it means that the list isn't just slapping the "supporting terrorism" label on Muslims for activities that many more countries do. I can imagine Cuba coming off, but I think they need a new token first.
