I’ve had enough

Here is our latest foreign policy initiative:

New US curbs on travel to communist-ruled Cuba went into effect on Wednesday, with opponents decrying them as an attack on family and the Bush administration arguing they will hasten the fall of Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Cuban Americans may now visit relatives on the island once every three years instead of annually and they may go only to see close family members rather than more distant relatives, among other restrictions aimed at toughening the four-decade-old US economic embargo on Cuba.

“It’s unimaginable, abusive,” said Raquel Chaviano, one of hundreds waiting at Havana airport on Tuesday for one of the last flights back to Miami before the rules went into force.

“The family is the main thing in life, and it has nothing to do with politics,” said Chaviano, who left the Caribbean island in 1980, leaving behind her daughter and siblings.

Here is the full, sad story. Here are more details about the human costs of the policy. Here is some material on America’s failed use of sanctions against Cuba.

What do you have to do to join The Ranks of the Shrill? Does someone have to send you an E-Invite?