[thechat] When is it time for war?

[Martin Burns]

On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, Erika Meyer wrote:

> This btw was one big issue I had with mainstream democratic
> candidates.  I believe they were all firmly on the Iraq economic
> sanctions and cuba embargo bandwagons. etc.

Indeed. If you're going to impose sanctions on a country which is
thousands of miles away and places no threat of danger on you, then at
least choose one whose people actually want sanctions.

Burma for example (Myanmar if you want to believe the current
dictatorship).

Or South Africa of 20 years ago - istr that most members of the governing
parties of both the UK & US at that time were against sanctions
because it would allegedly hurt the people at the bottom while Tutu
was going round the world asking for more sanctions because what was being
suffered by the black population was far worse than the effects of
sanctions.

So let's get this right - according to Blair, the sanctions against Iraq
didn't work, yet we supported them for 10 years, but those against South
Africa did work and we opposed them. Something's up with that...

(footnote - there were exemptions to the Iraqi sanctions for food &
medical supplies (and other humanitarian stuff that I don't remember rn).
If people died because of hunger or lack of medicine, it wasn't because of
anything imposed by the UN)

As for Cuba, it's just plain ridiculous. Continuing the embargo is just
bloody-mindedness in the face of a Communist country which has a higher
literacy rate and lower child mortality rate than the US, despite the
blockade and the economic collapse of their major international trading
partner/benefactor.

Cheers
Martin
-- 
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
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 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie