Let's do the time warp again

In the face of proposals to open up more to Cuba, the Bush administration trotted out Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to announce that no changes to Cuba policy would be acceptable.

Gutierrez described as ''naive'' talk that more U.S. contacts with the island would weaken the Castro government. Dealing with Fidel's brother and interim leader Raúl would be a ``tragic mistake.''

Discussing contacts in terms of weakening the Castro government is missing the point. Instead, the question should be whether refusing to make contacts has hurt the average Cuban (not to mention U.S. businesses) while strengthening the Castro government. It seems more naïve to argue that a strategy in place for over 40 years can still be considered functional even though it has not achieved its stated goal.

We negotiated with the Soviet Union, even more famously with China, with Vietnam, and just recently even with North Korea (though its nuclear capabilities obviously had a lot to do with that). But with Cuba we’re stuck permanently in the early 1960s. Eisenhower got the embargo ball rolling—I don’t think U.S. policy toward many other countries dates back to Ike.