James Stavridis, Foreign Policy

The lone-star flag of Cuba was proudly raised over the “newest” embassy in Washington this week. Mojitos were served in the Ernest Hemingway bar in the lovely old Beaux Arts building, and there was much shouting of “Viva Cuba.” In a few weeks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will head down to the biggest island in the Caribbean to raise the American flag over the unlovely six-story concrete structure that has served as the U.S. interests section for decades and will now likewise become a full-fledged embassy.

Exchanging full diplomatic relations makes sense and is something that has been a long time coming. Albert Einstein is widely credited with saying that the deepest form of human insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” The U.S. embargo against Cuba long ago attained that level of globally recognized failure. U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has done the right thing, and hopefully we will see Congress follow suit on the economic side by lifting the sanctions. Given the overall commercial interest in Cuban investment as well as higher levels of farm sales, this seems likely...