You may have noticed this in the aftermath of the Christmas Day airline terrorist act.� The Obama administration advanced a discussion regarding the upgrading of security.� In that context various US-alleged state sponsors of terrorism were mentioned in the media.� Cuba was on the list.� With the exception of one commentary that I have read in the last two weeks, no one seems to have been left unsettled by the reference to Cuba.

How is it that Cuba is on the list of state sponsors of terrorism?� A country that has been on the receiving end of terrorist attacks by either the USA or by right-wing Cuban exiles based in the USA has not carried out any terrorist attacks.� The Cuban government has repeatedly taken steps to provide the USA with information regarding terrorist groups training on US soil.� Yet the Cuban government remains on THE list.

The Obama administration has made noises about changing US policy towards Cuba.� One step, on the road toward eliminating the hated blockade of Cuba, would be the removal of Cuba from this list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Whether the Obama administration will do this is anyone�s guest because facts do not seem to matter in a situation like this.� The fact that Cuba has not launched any terrorist attacks against the USA, or the fact that Cuba offered to provide assistance TO the USA at the time of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, is irrelevant.�� The question is a matter of politics and the appearance of such an action to the Cuban exile community in the USA and their supporters.

Cuba is an excellent example of the fundamental problem with the manner in which the Obama administration goes about making decisions.� The majority of the Cuban exile community will not support President Obama short of his leading a naval armada to invade Cuba and restore the corrupt rule that was terminated in 1959.�� The same is true when it comes to most US Republicans.� They will not be won over.� There is no middle ground with them.� They cannot be convinced by suggestions of compromise.� They wish to see the Obama administration collapse ignominiously.

One does not need a degree in political science to recognize any of these points.� Yet the Obama administration continues to move forward at glacial speed.� Here is an arena where decisive and progressive action would make President Obama truly worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.� The Administration could take a tremendous and history-making step:� end Cuba�s status on the terrorism list and, yes, end the blockade.� The people who will hate the Obama administration for such a step ALREADY hate the Administration.

The time has come for the Administration to actually do something significant in the international arena.� As I said in my commentary last week, we don�t need any more eloquent speeches:� we need shrewd and path-breaking action.� Let�s begin by taking Cuba off the terrorism list and ending the blockade.� As is said in a different context, fifty years is enough.

BlackCommentator.com Executive Editor, Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and co-author of, Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice (University of California Press), which examines the crisis of organized labor in the USA. Click here to contact Mr. Fletcher.