RE: US and sanctions

[M <xxx@DELETETHISxxx>]

As of November 15th, 1999, the US have imposed sanctions on Afghanistan
because of the failure of the Taleban regime to
hand over ,Osama bin Laden, the alledged 'terrorist'. The sanctions
include a ban on Afghanistans national airline, Ariana, from
flying outside the countries airspace and freeze the Talebans overseas
bank accounts.  Here is another demonstration of the US wielding enormous
unchecked power over a very poor country without any compelling rational.
To hold an entire country to ransom over the alledged criminal actions
of one individual (who, unlike Saddam Hussein, is not even the countries
leader) is astonishing in its arrogance and I believe, criminal. The
scale of Osama bin Laden alledged crimes are given as the justification
for this US action, (US embassy bombings) that being the case, the question
must be asked why, for example, not impose sanctions on Indonesia to force
them to hand over the countries former leader General Suharto, a man responsible
for the deaths of some 1 million Indonesians aswell as 200,000 East Timorese
under his rule. Murder on a scale that far outstrips the actions of any
one individual terrorist. This of course is unthinkable since the west
facilitated bringing the military regime to power and have been at Suhartos
side ever since, providing economic, military and political support during
his entire murderous rule. There are of course additional hidden motivations
for these sanctions in Afghanistan which I will not go into here. Suffice
to say the US are using a 'hammer to crack a nut' for deliberate reasons,
as they did in Yugoslavia.

Another victim of  US sanctions I have seen rarely mentioned is Cuba. This is quite surprising to me since the sanctions on
Cuba can be looked at as currently perhaps the closest equavilent to those imposed on Iraq. Cuba has been subjected to forty
years of  US terror, US backed and orchestrated invasion and coup attempts, CIA assasination on Cubas political leadership,
and unprecedented economic warfare, with sanctions that bar even food and (effectively) medicine. This has caused terrible
social consequences for the people. What is most frightening about this situation however, in realation to the
fight to lift sanctions on Iraq, is the ability of the US to remain defiant in the face of forty years of international
humanitarian pressure aswell as the mainstream press amnesia and compliance with US policy with regards to
Cuba.  A situation replayed over the last ten years with regards to Iraq until perhaps in the last few months when the forces of
humanitarian activism from all nations and the enormous loss of life the Iraqi people have suffered have forced their way into the mainstream press and so onto the political agenda.

M