Anyone who has observed Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson's many appearances on cable news throughout the past decade knows that the longtime American diplomat doesn't mince words, and he certainly didn't on Saturday morning in Tampa when discussing what it might take for President Obama to end the U.S. government's 50-year plus economic embargo on Cuba.
Wilkerson said he had just read a transcript of the president's well received address in Jerusalem on Thursday and was watching the follow-up commentary on the news, and "I kept saying to the TV. Beautiful words. Wonderful rhetoric. My God, what a speaker he is. WHERE'S THE DAMN ACTION?! Because that's my problem as a Republican with this president for whom I voted (for) twice now. Is that he says things that are wonderful, and then does nothing to back it up."
Wilkerson was part of a two-day conference, which took place at the Cuban Club in Ybor City, about a possible rapprochement with Cuba that was sponsored by the Washington-based Center for International Policy and Tampa Cuban activist Al Fox's Alliance for Responsible Cuban Foundation.
This article appears in Mar 21-27, 2013.