Brent Scowcroft Center Senior Adviser Harlan Ullman writes for UPI on the three offerings from the geostrategic Santa Claus:

Tonight, Christmas Eve, possibly billions of children will be dreaming about what Santa Claus will bring them the next morning. Naughty or nice, will it be stacks of presents or lumps of coal in stockings hung by countless fireplaces because of bad behavior?On a different level, a geostrategic Santa Claus has left three offerings. A similar query applies. Will these offerings turn out to be the equivalent of presents and opportunities? Or will they be lumps of coal signifying bad things?

President Barack Obama has decided it is high time that the United States recognized Cuba. As this column has criticized the president more often than not, hooray and well done! Despite the brickbats and screams of protest by offended Republicans and others living in the past, that recognition is long overdue.

Read the full article here.