Former President Bill Clinton's recent trip to North Korea helps to underscore one of the major inconsistencies with U.S. foreign policy. It is perfectly legal for a U.S. citizen to travel 6,400 miles to visit North Korea, but generally illegal for that same person to travel 95 miles from the United States to Cuba.

Travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba is, at best, extremely difficult and, at worst, impossible. First, a license must be obtained from the Treasury Department, often requiring a review and approval by the State Department as well. Since the U.S. forbids most interaction between Cuban and U.S. businesses, your credit cards and traveler's checks won't do you any good in Cuba. All transactions by U.S. citizens must be in cash. And then there are the limits on what you can and cannot bring back from Cuba. Unless it's something printed on paper, such as books or artwork, forget it. Get caught trying to bring Cuban cigars through customs in Miami and they will be destroyed.

Proponents of those restrictions will give you numerous reasons for the laws that require them, the most common being that Cuba is a communist dictatorship that has expropriated private property, jailed political opponents and restricted the rights of its citizens.

Being a dictatorship hasn't kept us from having diplomatic relations with Sudan, China, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Libya and Zimbabwe. Likewise with the expropriation of private property. The former Soviet Union, China and Zimbabwe have all had diplomatic relations with the United States in spite of having expropriated private property.

Unlike many of the countries with which we maintain full diplomatic relations, Cuba has no tolerance for drugs or drug smuggling. Nor will you find the country harboring terrorists wanting to blow up people and buildings in our country. The last time I came into the United States from Cuba, I overheard one customs official saying to another, "Isn't this great? Here we are concerned about terrorists coming into the U.S. and causing another 9/11-type incident and they have us in Miami making sure nobody brings any cigars in from Cuba."

Several of Idaho's political leaders, including Gov. Butch Otter, Sen. Mike Crapo and former Sen. Larry Craig, have been strong proponents of removing barriers to travel and trade between the United States and Cuba.

Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recently released a report titled "Changing Cuba Policy - In the United States' National Interest."

In this report, Lugar states, "After 47 years, the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of 'bringing democracy to the Cuban people,' while it may have been used as a foil by the regime to demand further sacrifices from Cuba's impoverished population. The current U.S. policy has many passionate defenders, and their criticism of the Castro regime is justified. Nevertheless, we must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests."

Hopefully in the coming months we will see common sense prevail within the Obama administration and give U.S. citizens the same freedom to travel to Cuba that we have to travel throughout the rest of the world.

Martin Peterson lives in Boise. He serves on the board of the Finca Vigia Foundation, which is working with the Cuban government on the restoration of Ernest Hemingway's Cuban home. He has made several licensed trips to Cuba.