Let the game begin! We are about to watch one of the most interesting political chess matches ever played on the international stage. Perhaps the most honest statements in today's AP news report, "US eases Cuban travel, money restraints" - are the words, "U.S. telecommunications firms were freed to seek business there" and "Obama said as a presidential candidate that the embargo was a form of leverage to press for democratic reforms in Cuba."

Unquestionably, Obama's interest in lifting these restrictions (which is short of fully lifting the embargo) is also "a form of leverage to press for democratic reforms". With this change, the Obama regime has just moved their first pawn on the political chess board. But his concept of "democratic reforms" is identical to the "democratic reforms" he and his regime are aggressively pursuing in Afghanista, Pakistan and Iraq at the moment. There is one difference: In those countries, their strategies are being mapped out in the Pentagon and the chess pieces are bombs, guns, false flags, and missiles fired from the unmanned drones of the U.S. Air Force.

Obama's "form of leverage" this time is with completely different strategies and weapons. His strategies for Cuba are developed at the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) and Langley and his primary weapons are propaganda, money and a bag of tricks. Make no mistake, the U.S. government plans to invade Cuba with corporate, media and NGO weapons to bring down the government, destroy their communist system and establish capitalism in Cuba. We must remember that the Council on Foreign Relations has the future of other countries mapped out 25 years in advance. But then, we can see how their "best laid plans" are turning out in the Middle East. In the case of Cuba, the U.S. will try to begin by doing some "feel good - look-good work". They will perhaps want to deliver some goods that Cubans have gone without due to the failed embargo. Their media will pile on more horseshit about liberating Cubans from communism and oppression. They'll probably try to develop some sort of cultural exchange programs, hosting the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba in Boston or New York (ahh, probably not in Miami) - this sort of thing.

A second wave of influence will be designed to send U.S. firms into Cuba, as with the telecommunications business the AP report mentions; or perhaps some agro-business or pharmaceutical firms - all in the name of helping an impoverished people. Behind that they no doubt entertain tiresome ideas about bringing fast food, vanity products and Hollywood values to Cuba's youth. Good luck with all that Obama - you're gonna need it in Cuba. For decades, Cuban parents have had a nasty habit of instilling real humanisitic values in their youth from the day they're born.

Even in the unlikely event that the Cuban government were to allow these maneuvers on the chess board, Cuban kids are not as vulnerable to the loud, high pressure, child-targeted, overproduced advertising, typical of NY advertising firms that has shaped the minds of the youth of the United States. They've grown up on a different ideological diet. Cubans have an appetite for real family values, good work, education, community and a well-grounded pride in their country's sovereignty and independence. They've paid a price for their sovereignty and they're not likely to let it slip from their hands. They also know the U.S. as an enemy to their country and values and their parents aren't likely to send them off to Mickey Dees for their evening meal if one were to show up on a street in Havana. Their kids haven't been trained by a corrupt media to run from the TV room to their parents' bedroom, begging them for the latest cell phone gadgets, TV games and a trip to Six Flags or Disney. The Cuban people are among the most hard working and highly educated on earth, not only in math and science but also in the humanities, history and political philosophy.

I see those inculcated values in the Cubans I've come to know and in the Cuban medical professionals who are providing health care for Venezuela's poor. In one of my meetings with them, a Cuban doctor and I discussed his monthly salary (very low) and I asked him if he knew how much doctors in the U.S. were getting for similar services. He smiled and said, "Yo no trabajo para el dinero. Trabajo para ayudar personas. Quiero mi trabajo. Es mi profesión." ("I don't work for the money. I work to help people. I like my work. It's my profession.")

It's very difficult for most people who have grown up in a capitalist system to get their heads around these statements. Many would hear them cynically and in simple disbelief. Within the capitalist system, we have been trained from childhood that the primary reason, if not the only reason to work - is for a paycheck. For most, the value of work-for-the-sake-of-work - and work - for the benefit of others - is a foreign idea. Many if not most of the children in the U.S. grow up with a negative view of work - something that one has to do in order to "really live", that is, after work, on the weekends, on vacation and finally in the retirement years. Their view of work should not be surprising. When the only or even primary fruit of work is money, the work itself becomes tedious, meaningless, bereft of creativity and monotonous ... the daily grind.

Of course I write about the Cuban people in general terms and willingly admit that in any society, there are dissidents. The U.S. is counting on using those Cuban dissidents (as they do in many countries), by dumping money on them and a mission to organise against and eventually overthrow their government. "Anyone can be bought", so they think. But even those Cubans who may have strong disagreements with the Cuban government are free to openly criticise their government without betraying their country, culture and fundamental values. My co-editor, Paul Richard Harris recently returned from his second visit to Cuba and described the "freedom of expression" that he observed "on every street corner" - Cubans arguing with other Cubans openly and loudly about points of difference with the government. But those disagreements do not necessarily betray their deep, abiding loyalty and love for their country or their unique history and their revolution.

Obama's "Democratic Reforms" are nothing short of a euphemism for "regime change", to use the rhetoric of George W. Bush. The new tac of the U.S. government has everything to do with using the media, corporations and NGOs to undermine Cuba's communist system and society. Based on their histories, we can be confident that National Endowment for Democracy, USAID and the Carnegie Institute for International Peace are already getting ready to pony up $millions to build internal opposition groups against the Cuban government as they have done in Venezuela. (So far, they're losing the game and their money here in Venezuela.)

We can also be sure that the Cuban government will be extremely cautious before reaching any agreements with the Obama regime about travel rights or trade. Nobody plays better political chess than the Castro Brothers and the brilliant people surrounding them. Fidel and Raúl didn't survive for half a century the hundreds of assassination attempts, the U.S. Embargo, successfully bring Cuba through the Special Period and develop one of the best housing, education and health care systems in the world by falling into a transparent trap. Of course, this U.S. regime is fully confident they will eventually trap the King. But their check-mate could very well end as a Fool's mate as it has so many times and in so many countries in the past. The wise will put their money on permanent revolution.