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Real News interview with Lawrence Wilkerson, retired United States Army soldier and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. Wilkerson is an adjunct professor at the College of William & Mary where he teaches courses on US national security. He also instructs a senior seminar in the Honors Department at the George Washington University entitled "National Security Decision Making." Here he speaks to Real News about the announcement by President Obama on 17 December 2014 that the US would begin to normalise relations with Cuba. He talks about why the US policy was a failure and why Cuba should beware of US. A transcript of interview highlights. For the full transcript go to http://www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk WILKERSON: Interestingly, when I was chief of staff to Colin Powell at the US. Department of State, I was indiscreet one day and gave an interview to GQ magazine, and I said that it was the stupidest policy on the face of the earth, our policy of embargo, blockade of Cuba, and so forth. And it got out into the public, and I had telephone calls from the White House. Powell protected me, and I didn't get fired. But that was Powell's view, too. I'll be very honest about it, very candid. Powell's view was it was dumb policy. The group in the United States who protected this policy for so long that now are being roundly defeated, in defeat after defeat--Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Bob Menendez, and a host of others like them--are what I call Batista leftovers. They loved Batista's Cuba. These are thugs. These are--let's face it. People like Posada Carilles, who was complicit in bringing that Cuban airliner down and killing everyone on board, including the young Cuban fencing team, they're the terrorist. They are the terrorists. They had Cuba locked in an almost iron embrace, and they were punishing no one but the Cuban people. They weren't punishing the Castros. They weren't punishing the elite in Cuba. They were punishing the Cuban people, 11 million people, who, incidentally, are some of the finest people I've ever met in the Caribbean, and indeed in the Western Hemisphere. The Cubans can't even find a bank in the United States to take their account, to handle their account, because the banks are so scared of being sanctioned. Why would you want to take an account that maybe has $1 billion at max when you might be sanctioned for $9 billion? I mean, it's crazy. So this will relieve that problem too. Europeans will be elated over this, are elated over this change. You also have the agricultural interests in the United States who were selling somewhat to Cuba under the previous draconian regime, but it was cash-and-carry. The Cubans said, bring the money, put it on the table, and then they could load the ship with rice or chickens or whatever and ship it to Cuba. And oftentimes there wouldn't be a bank they could put that money in. So it was absurd, and the trade was falling off. Now the chickens, the rice, everything that we raised that the Cubans will buy can go to Cuba, and they can reasonably conduct business with regard to that agriculture. Texas was for it, Louisiana was for it, Georgia was for it. I mean, all the Southern states that see the possibilities of agricultural sales were for it. . The ultimate normalization of relations will require the Congress to repeal the Helms-Burton Act and to lift the embargo. That's, I don't think, impossible over the next three to five years. I believe we've got the impetus now. We've got Cuban Americans overwhelmingly now saying this is a good policy. The giant is coming back. Don't let us destroy your environment. Don't let us destroy the best health care system in the Western Hemisphere, perhaps in the world. The Cubans went to Liberia and are fighting Ebola better than any other country in the world, ourselves included, based on their population. They are--finally we're allowing them to live in our tents and use our technology in Liberia. So don't let us ruin your country again. Original report from Real News: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12918