OPINION: Change needed in Cuba policy

Frederic Bastiat is credited with saying, "If goods don't cross borders, soldiers will." He knew the best way to keep nations on speaking terms with one another was trade. It's difficult for a nation to foment distrust of another nation when the people of both rely on one another to provide products they want and need. It's in everyone's interest to keep trade free, so products can flow from producers to consumers. Trade restrictions stifle that flow, and usually for little benefit to the restricting nation. That's one of the reasons economic sanctions have such a poor record of prompting change in targeted countries.

For a good example we need look no farther than 90 miles south of Key West, Fla. The United States banned trade and travel with Cuba shortly after Fidel Cstro took over in 1959. The sanctions have been a stunning success, with Castro buckling under to U.S. demands in short order, right? We all know better.

After nearly five decades of U.S. attempts to economically isolate the island nation, Castro is still firmly in power, though these days his policies are carried out by younger brother Raul. It's fair to say the embargo has failed. Keeping itin place only punishes the Cuban people and deprives consumers in each nation of goods produced by the other.

The Bush administration repeatedly rejected calls to loosen the embargo. We know this is the standard line of U.S. administrations through the years, but it should be obvious, even to hard-line anti-communists, that these "essential" measures aren't working to loosen the communists grip on power. Other nations freely trade with Havana, thus providing the Cuban economy with many of the products it's not getting from the U.S. The United States might as well drop the sanctions and join the party. This is one of the changes we could believe in from the incoming Obama administration.