Imagine a nation thirsting for freedom and stricken by poverty and oppression.  A nation where the U.S. has attempted regime change and failed, where a dictatorial government clings to power.  Iraq?  North Korea?  No - the nation is Cuba.

 ' Ninety miles off the coast of Florida,' are words that once struck fear into the hearts of Americans.  At the height of the Cold War, Cuba was an adversary and an extension of the iron fist of Communism to the Western Hemisphere.  Since then, the world has changed and so has Cuba.  But the progress that characterized the defeat of Communism in the Cold War has not been extended to America's strategy to bring freedom to the island nation 90 miles off our coast.

Fidel Castro has had little problem quelling rebellions in Cuba and defying the United States.  His regime continues, and as long as he is in power, the Cuban people suffer.  Few would argue that the sooner his regime ends, the better for Cuba and the rest of the world. 

The way we are going about it, however, is all wrong.  In the past six months, the U.S. Treasury Department announced a new set of rules further restricting travel to Cuba, trade, and educational trips linked to American churches and universities.  The regulations are shockingly anti-family and impose on the freedoms of Americans to travel and trade goods.

The new rules restrict trips by family members to one limited stay every three years, with no exception for visiting sick or dying family members.  They virtually cut off travel of any other kind.  In short, the focus is on isolating Cuba in every way we can.
While these rules were written, Fidel smiled.

Too long, the presence of the Castro regime has been an embarrassment to our own country.  We are allowing the Communist dictator to remain in power by pitting ourselves against his people, blockading trade and threatening them militarily.  With these new regulations, we are handing Castro free rein to name his successor.

Fidel Castro has already shown us he thrives in power when he can pit his people against an unknown America.  Isolating him only helps Castro keep the Cuban people under the thumb of Communism.  A better solution is the one America employed to bring down the Berlin Wall: an unflinching facade with an open, extended hand.

America has a huge, yet unrealized, market for our agricultural commodities right off our own coast.  While we ship Missouri rice, grains, and beef all over the world, Cuba represents a $350 billion-per-year market just a few hours from American shores.  And with those exports of material goods comes dialog and the exchange of ideas.  The resulting familiarity between two nations was enough to bring down the Iron Curtain - it ought to be enough to cross the Florida Strait.

Spain is crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Cuba with great success B Spanish interests have renovated Cuba's airport and now dominate the air service market to Havana.  Just recently, a Spanish energy company has begun exploring for oil off the Cuban coast, an action that has gone quietly unacknowledged in our oil-dependent nation.  Benefits exist for both parties from trade with Cuba - but trade is not the ultimate goal of the best policy with that nation.

When the rule of Communism ends in Cuba, we want to create a partner nation to help lead the way to representative government in the Carribean.  Cuba will become an important bellwether of the stability in the region.  But Cuba cannot break the chains of Communism alone, and it cannot succeed in this mission with Fidel Castro as its leader.

Instead of giving Cubans a false champion in Fidel and a false enemy in us, let us give them a friend abroad and a reason to topple the regime that restricts them.  Trade winds carry much more than goods and services - they blow down barriers with strong relationships, cultural exchanges, and political ideas.  And those are winds that will only blow in one direction, from America to Cuba.

Most important, however, is the message we will send to the world by helping a new nation rise up with free and democratic principles, ninety miles off the coast of America.