These is the line taken by defenders of the raid, from Mr. Clinton to Eleanor Clift and Al Hunt, that there was no alternative. Actually there were many alternatives, including those previously agreed to by the INS, such as family court. The defenses of the raid reveal that American liberals, whatever their protestations to the contrary, are fond of armed coercion that serves partisan ends. Those ends also veto any public expression of outrage over the repression of the Castro regime, about which liberals remain silent, ignorant or both. Elian's life in Cuba will be a future without a future.
American liberals respond with a shrug.
Be fair, they say in effect, there was nothing else Janet Reno could do. Some day Elian will realize what Cubans in Miami already know. A liberalism that indulges dictators and swoons in the face of force and injustice isn't really liberal at all. Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley is editorial director of the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco. U.S. Rep. James Traficant,Jr.