Travel, trade, not another crackdown, can aid Cuba

[Say_What]

<clips>

The Bush administration's reasoning for tightening travel restrictions to Cuba needs a reality check.

President Bush (news - web sites) said Friday that he has ordered a crackdown on illegal travel to the communist country. He announced initiatives "intended to hasten the arrival of a new, free, democratic Cuba."

Bush said he's doing this to stanch the flow of dollars to the government of Fidel Castro (news - web sites); to stem prostitution on the island, "a rapidly growing part of Cuba's tourism industry" that he said is encouraged by the Castro government; and to make it easier for people who want to leave Cuba to enter the United States.

Coming as it does just 13 months before the next presidential election, Bush's tough talk on Cuba has the unmistakable ring of a stump speech that caters to his political base in South Florida.

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