Kate O'Beirne is NR's Washington editor. National Review, 4/18/00 4:30 p.m.
A long-distance diagnosis should focus on Cuba.
Seven years ago this week, Janet Reno's tanks assaulted the Branch Davidians' compound to spare the resident children from reported abuse. Let's hope that Janet Reno is not prompted to mount a similar "rescue" of Elián Gonzalez, in response to the assessment of Dr. Irwin
Redlener, the New York pediatrician advising the INS. Redlener counseled the government to remove Elián from the home of his Miami relatives immediately because the child is "in a state of imminent danger to his physical and emotional well-being in a home that I consider to be
psychologically abusive." Dr. Redlener hasn't met Elián, but his long-distance diagnosis concludes that he is being "horrendously exploited."
Dr. Redlener should use his unique diagnostic skills and look 90 miles south to assess what effect Elian's Cuban homecoming will have on Castro’s "boy hero." He might check out the Cuban government's official Elián website at http://elian.cu and see the photos of the Havana
demonstrations demanding his return. The chilling scenes of a sea of posters depicting the boy would be far more frightening to the average six- year-old than scores of middle-aged women saying the rosary as they keep vigil outside his uncle's house in Little Havana. Elian doesn't appear to be too
intimidated to engage in plenty of carefree play in that small, fenced yard.
If Dr. Redlener is worried about "psychological abuse," he ought to consider Cuban state-TV reports about the regime's "readaptation" plans for Elián. A large, seaside house with a swimming pool has been prepared for Elián, his family, a team of psychologists,
teachers, and about a dozen of his classmates. (Do Cuban parents have anything to say about their children being moved to this communal-indoctrination set-up?). It's a safe bet that when Elián emerges from the planned three-month "transition" period in his temporary digs, he'll not
have a kind word to say about Miami, or his American relatives. Dr. Redlener imagined a "hostage situation" in the video of Elián declaring that he didn't want to return to Cuba. It will be the real thing when Elián is held out of sight, until he's willing to be the toughest
little Communist in Cuba.
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