UN Votes Overwhelmingly to Condemn US Embargo of Cuba
Good.<p>Even though UN resolutions are and always have been meaningless, they can still apply some pressure.<p>Fun fact: the UN created the International Criminal Court to prosecure war crimes, something the US vehemently opposed. The US under then-president George W. Bush, argued that such a court may lead to US servicemen being charged with war crimes. Of course the US has committed war crimes [1]. So Bush passed the Hage Invasion Act [2], which authorizes the US to <i>invade the Netherlands</i> if any US servicemen are brought up on war crimes at the ICC in The Hague (in the Netherlands, obviously).<p>The point is the US wouldn&#x27;t do this if the UN could be completely ignored.<p>There are several major countries that have varying degrees of harsh long-standing sanctions at the behest of the US that are completely unjustifiable:<p>1. Cuba. Why? If you look beyond the &quot;communism = bad&quot; kneejerk reaction you come to the justification that Cuba nationalized assets of US citizens. That didn&#x27;t stop the US seizing Afghan citizens&#x27; assets [3];<p>2. Venezuela. Why? Because Maduro started to or threatened to nationalize their oil industry. So the sanctions were really for the benefit of Chevron, Shell and Exxon. There&#x27;s no principle here. The US had no problem with Chavez (who was awful). But again, &quot;communism = bad&quot;;<p>3. Russia. This one makes sense. I mean the average citizens will bear the brunt of this but Russia started an unjustifiable war in Ukraine so what else can you do?<p>4. Iran.Why? After the US backed a coup of Iran&#x27;s democratic government to install the US-allied Shah (again, communism and the Truman Doctrine comes into this), which pretty much sowed the seeds fo the 1979 fundamentalist revolution, which has been the government since. We&#x27;ve decided to pick sides with Saudi Arabia. Nevermind that Saudi Arabia funded and supported the 9&#x2F;11 terrorists (and the madrasses that created them) and is currently engaging in a genocide in Yemen with US weapons. Sanctions seem to have the effect of solifying support for the regime (up until recently). Obama brokered a deal to end this. Trump blew it up essentially to appease Israel (and Biden has continued that policy).<p>4. North Korea. Does anyone stop and think why North Korea is <i>really</i> under heavy sanctions? &quot;Because they&#x27;re bad&quot; is really the crux of this. The implicit assumption here is that US is &quot;good&quot;, somehow by definition. That belief creates all sorts of problems.<p>Consider this: Cuba produces a lot of cane sugar. The US spends a lot of money on the corn lobby and corn (in the form of high-fructose corn syrup) is a common cane sugar substitute in the US and almost nowhere else in the developed world.<p>It&#x27;s kinda weird how so many of these sanctions can be tied back to US economic and political interests rather than any form of principle.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;United_States_war_crimes" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;United_States_war_crimes</a><p>[2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hrw.org&#x2F;news&#x2F;2002&#x2F;08&#x2F;03&#x2F;us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hrw.org&#x2F;news&#x2F;2002&#x2F;08&#x2F;03&#x2F;us-hague-invasion-act-be...</a><p>[3]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2022&#x2F;09&#x2F;14&#x2F;us&#x2F;politics&#x2F;afghanistan-central-bank-switzerland.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2022&#x2F;09&#x2F;14&#x2F;us&#x2F;politics&#x2F;afghanistan-c...</a>