Family makes raid the only recourse

Most Americans rightly abhor the idea of armed official entry into the sanctity of their homes. But then most Americans are not breaking the law by holding 6-year-old children as political hostages.

Critics of the flawlessly executed operation -- carried out with a warrant and due process of law -- need to bear in mind that the raid was caused by the child's misguided relatives and their political advisers, not by any rush to judgment by Attorney General Janet Reno.

It was the family's stubborn refusal to obey the law that forced the raid. It depended for its success on a show of overwhelming, intimidating armed force. It's the textbook approach to ensure the safest outcome because it discourages any temptation to resist.

If anything, Reno's been far too patient with this family. She certainly offered them every opportunity to surrender Elian to his father peacefully. But they chose to do it in the most traumatic way.

It's safe to say the family well understands the propaganda value such a raid would offer their cause. They are now attempting to use it to bolster their effort to keep the child from his father.

It won't wash.

Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez and his family let their hatred of Castro eclipse the welfare of the child.

In their willingness to use Elian as a political tool, they've proven they're unfit to have custody of the child. In Miami's Little Havana, they promoted Elian as a mythic figure, brought to U.S. shores on the backs of dolphins, to mobilize resistance to Castro. He was cynically used by the family and their advisers in the Cuban-American National Foundation as a poster boy for the struggle against Castro's regime.

The foundation, a Cuban exile group anxious to remain politically relevant, advised the family and bankrolled its travels. It warned that giving Elian up to his father -- his father -- would amount to an intolerable propaganda victory for Castro.

Give us a break.

If any good thing has come out of this pitiful episode, it's the exposure of the Florida Cuban exile community's exaggerated role in presidential politics. Anyone who doubts that has only to look at Vice President Al Gore's pandering statement, in opposition to the administration in which he serves, that Elian should not be returned to his father in Cuba.

Fear of losses at election time in populous South Florida has given the Cuban exile community a far greater say in national policy toward Cuba than is warranted by its numbers. As a result of that community's hostility to Castro, the United States continues to pursue a demonstrably non-productive policy toward Cuba.

The Cuban exiles rightly oppose Castro's faltering Communist regime, as do we. But Elian's case has wretchedly illustrated the urgent need for a more rational approach to U.S. engagement with Cuba.