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Today's
Stories
October
30 / 31, 2004
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Spartacus Tells All
October
29, 2004
Harry
Browne
No Justice for Peace Activist in County
Clare
October
28, 2004
Forrest Hylton
"The Gas is Ours:" Bolivia's
Ghosts of October
Col. Dan Smith
Rebellion
in the Ranks
Alan Maass
Jon Stewart v. the Pundits
Ron Jacobs
Ecstasy
in Red Sox Nation
Alexander
Cockburn
Kerrycrats and the War
October
27, 2004
Jules
Rabin
Crammed with Distressful Politics
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate: the Lies Continue
Katherine
Van Tassel
On the Home Front: Both Parties
Ignore Working Parents
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bi-Partisan Politics of Oil
October 26,
2004
Brian Cloughley
Three
Weddings and Lots of Funerals: Atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan
William Blum
Fear
Factors
Lenni Brenner
The
1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Lessons for 2004
Ben Tripp
The
Chicken Salad Election
Fidel Castro
After the Fall
Greg Bates
The Nation's Flawed Calculus
Walter Brasch
Gag the Public: the War on Dissent
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
An Open Letter to Pat Buchanan
Mickey Z.
Rumble in the Jungle at 30: Ali, Foreman and the Congo
Amir Taheri
The Boom in Conspiracy Theories
Alexander Billet
Say It Ain't So, Bruce!: the Boss Endorses Kerry
Doug Giebel
The Religion of G.W. Bush
Kathleen Christison
Why
I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't
October 25,
2004
Ralph Nader
Letter
from a Minnesota Highway
Werther
West
Texas Wahabbism
Dave Zirin
Boston's Killer Cops: Death of a Fan
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Oregon Revokes Dr. Leveque's License
Omar Barghouti
Executing Another Child in Rafah
William J. Nottingham
Lori Berenson's Story
John Chuckman
A Foolish Consistency
Uri Avnery
On
the Road to Civil War
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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Weekend Edition
October 30 / 31, 2004
Strangling
Cuba's Economy
Sanctions
as a War of Attrition
By
HOPE BASTIAN
I'm living in a war zone, but what I
see when I look out the window of my apartment in Havana, Cuba
does not resemble the pictures in the papers of the war in Iraq.
No missiles have been fired here, there are no camouflaged soldiers
in the streets with guns, no armored tanks roll by. The sun is
still shining, the birds still sing, and the streets are alive
with people busy living their lives. There are no children dying
in the streets from shrapnel wounds, but there is no doubt the
nation is under attack. Here the war is manifested not in body
counts and car-bombings but in the constant assault of material
poverty: crumbling homes and rolling black-outs. It doesn't look
like a war zone, but the U.S. government is waging a silent war
here and no one is left untouched.
The war in Iraq is not the
only war that the Bush Administration is involved in today and
its plans for "regime change" are not limited to the
Middle East. They might have caught Saddam, but there's another
bearded "bad-guy" on the loose, and another nation,
weak after years of U.S. sanctions, to be "liberated".
There's nothing new about the war against Cuba, which started
in May of 1961, only four months after the Revolution overthrew
U.S.-backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Forty-five years and
over 600 assassination attempts later, the war against Cuba is
now principally fought with weapons of economic destruction .
The Bush Administration has intensified this economic war and
made overthrowing the Cuban government a higher priority in this
election year than in previous years.
Last October, Bush began his
presidential campaign with a pledge to radical rightist elements
of the Cuban-American community in South Florida to take drastic
steps to strengthen the enforcement of the U.S. embargo against
Cuba . "Clearly, the Castro regime will not change by its
own choice," Bush said, "But Cuba must change."
In his speech, Bush announced the establishment of the Commission
for the Assistance to a Free Cuba, "to plan for the happy
day when Castro's regime is no more and democracy comes to the
island." The Commission was asked to draw upon experts within
the U.S. government to "identify ways to hasten the arrival
of that day." Bush warned that, "The transition to
freedom will present many challenges to the Cuban people and
to America", and promised that, "In all that lies ahead,
the Cuban people have a constant friend in the United States
of AmericaÖwe are confident that no matter what the dictator
intends or plans, Cuba ser· pronto libre" .
On May 6, 2004, the Commission
for the Assistance to a Free Cuba, chaired by Secretary of State
Colin Powell, and staffed by a "dream team" of high
level cabinet officials reported back to the president. They
presented a 458-page report outlining concrete steps to be taken
by the Bush administration to overthrow the Cuban government
. As soon as the report was released, wheels were set in motion
to write these recommendations into law. On June 16, 2004, the
Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
published a new set of regulations in the Federal Register to
govern U.S. economic relations with Cuba. (OFAC administers and
enforces economic and trade sanctions that support U.S. foreign
policy and national security goals.)
Much of the press coverage
in the U.S. about these new measures has focused on the ways
in which they have affected Cuban families on both sides of the
Florida Strait. However, the most controversial measures are
contained in other new regulations. The U.S. government has instituted
new measures limiting Cuba's ability to engage in international
trade in its attempt to overthrow the Cuban government.
Tools of economic warfare The
Bush administration's current war for regime change in Cuba depends
not on cluster bombs and depleted uranium, but on the use of
a 45-year old economic embargo as a weapon to isolate Cuba. By
preventing other countries from trading with Cuba, the U.S. government
hopes to make it impossible for the nation to provide for the
needs of its citizens . Cuba will reach a breaking point; the
people will rise up against their government and welcome the
U.S. "liberators" with open arms. At least that's the
way it is supposed to work. A full 400 pages of the 458 page
"Commission for the Assistance to a Free Cuba Report"
are focused on the delivery of aid by the U.S. government to
a new regime to ease the suffering caused by the crippling economic
embargo. The report outlines in detail a plan for rebuilding
the country in the U.S.'s image of a model representative democracy
with a free-market economy. Does the term nation building sound
familiar from some other context?
When socialism ended in Eastern
Europe and the Soviet Union, Cuba lost its largest trading partner
and fell into a deep economic depression. In the U.S., many hoped
that Cuban socialism would follow and it was to that end that
they chose that moment to tighten the embargo. In October 1992,
less than a month before the U.S. general elections, Congress
passed the Torricelli Act. Foreign subsidiaries of U.S. owned
companies were prohibited from trading with Cuba. Ships that
delivered goods to Cuba were prohibited from docking in U.S.
ports for six months after, forcing shipping companies to decide
who they wanted to trade with: Cuba or the United States. Because
a ship docking in Cuba either loses access to the U.S. market
or risk a steep fine if they dock in a U.S. port, Cuba's shipping
costs skyrocketed . The law also restricted remittances, prohibited
economic assistance and debt forgiveness to any country conducting
trade with Cuba, and increased punitive measures for anyone breaking
the trade embargo or travelling to Cuba illegally.
Four years later, in another
election year (1996), Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act. This
Act included another series of harsh measures aimed at preventing
non-U.S. firms from trading with Cuba by punishing those who
engage in commercial dealings with Cuba. Under the Helms-Burton
Act, any naturalized U.S. citizens whose Cuban property had been
confiscated since the Revolution now had the right to sue, in
U.S. courts, the foreign companies or individuals who they deem
have gained from investments in those properties . It also authorized
the U.S. State Department to deny visas to the executives, majority
shareholders and their families of companies that have invested
in property that belonged to U.S. companies prior to the Revolution
.
Before the Helms-Burton Act,
many elements of the embargo existed only as executive orders
and regulations that could be modified by the president. Helms-Burton
codified the embargo requiring an act of Congress to lift the
embargo. It also dictated the conditions that must exist in Cuba
before the embargo would be lifted. Top on the list were the
creation of a new government in Cuba that does not include Fidel
or Raul Castro and proof that this new government was "substantially
moving towards a market-oriented economic system based on the
right to own and enjoy property" .
The recent attacks by the U.S.
Treasury Department on businesses trading with Cuba show the
strength of the Bush administration's commitment to "regime
change" in Cuba. Perhaps these attacks also demonstrate
its lack of commitment to fighting international terrorism. While
the Treasury Department has 21 employees who track financial
transactions with Cuba, it has only four employees responsible
for tracking the funding of Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein . Al
Qaeda operatives may remain at-large, planning future terrorist
attacks, but we can all rest assured that James Sabzali, a Canadian
citizen who sold resins used to purify public drinking water
in Cuba, has been slapped with a $10,000 fine and a 12-month
conditional sentence for his dangerous actions . To you or me,
this may sound a little harsh; to the Bush administration, it
is clear that an unequivocal message must be sent to the international
business community that trading with Cuba is "trading with
the enemy". As the well-known axiom of Bush's foreign policy
clearly states "You're either with us or against us".
One recommendation in the Commission's
May report was that the U.S. government establish a Cuban Asset
Targeting Group, to investigate and identify new ways in which
hard currency is moved in and out of Cuba. In May, the U.S. Federal
Reserve fined UBS AG, Switzerland's largest bank, $100 million
dollars U.S. for allegedly sending U.S. dollars to Cuba in violation
of provisions of the embargo that prevent Cuba from trading in
dollars. This action has created serious problems for Cuba by
making it very difficult to deposit its dollars abroad and renew
bills in circulation.
Although the Bush administration
claims that, "There is a growing international consensus
on the nature of the Castro regime and the need for fundamental
political and economic change on the island." for thirteen
straight years, the U.N. General Assembly has voted to condemn
the U.S. embargo against Cuba. On October 28, 2004, the U.N.
General Assembly voted 179 to 4 with one abstention on a resolution
condemning the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba. During these thirteen
years, the margin in favor of Cuba has steadily increased. This
year, only the United States, Israel, Palau and the Marshall
Islands voted against a condemnation of the embargo. Is this
the "coalition of the willing" who supports U.S. policies
for "regime change" in Cuba? Just as in the current
military war for "regime change" in Iraq, the U.S.
government stands alone in its economic war against Cuba, supported
only by a weak coalition of "allies" who cannot refuse.
A war of attrition is being
fought by the U.S. in Cuba. The Cuban people are suffering from
the cumulative affects of 45 years of economic policies designed
to create the conditions for a US-assisted transition to a free-market
economy. The island is blockaded, not by U.S. battleships and
destroyers, but by a collection of laws and presidential mandates
that fly in the face of international law, limiting the free
movement of trade and the economic sovereignty of Cuba and those
who would do business with them.
Hope Bastian is an eductor living in Florida.
Weekend
Edition Features for October 22 / 14, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
/
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