CUBA, SYRIA, LIBYA
Bush threatens more countries
By Deirdre Griswold
Like the rolling out of a bad movie, the Bush administration
is testing out on the public a lurid and ridiculous scenario
for demonizing those countries it wants to attack.
On May 6, John Bolton, under-secretary of state for arms
control, added Cuba, Syria and Libya to the list of countries
the U.S. government accuses of developing "wea pons of mass
destruction." Of course, the Pentagon's immense arsenal of
conventional, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons is
immune from being characterized in that language, even though
it puts the rest of the world to shame in terms of ability to
eliminate the population of the Earth many times over.
This anti-worker, pro-big business government chose the
venue of a speech by Bolton to the conservative Heritage
Foundation to declare these small developing countries to be
"terrorist." Most people in the world will see this as further
proof that the gang occupying the White House are hell-bent on
using any means to justify their quest for world domination.
But whether or not anybody believes them, the right-wing cabal
making decisions about foreign policy have cranked up the
machinery for further economic and military measures against
these three countries.
Anyone who has been to Cuba comes away with great respect
for that socialist country's highly developed medical care
system, which is free and available to everyone and has been
highly commended by the World Health Organization. Cuba has
more doctors and nurses per population than any other country
in the world, sending medical missions to help other poor
nations, and has driven down its infant mortality level to the
lowest in the Americas.
So it is particularly maddening that this administration,
which won't even help sick people get affordable medicines, has
chosen Cuba's highly developed medical system as its target.
The great advances Cubans have made in developing new vaccines
through biotechnology are not to help people, says Bolton. Why,
their magnificent public health system is just a front for an
international bioterrorist network.
This kind of claptrap from sworn enemies of the Cuban
Revolution appointed by Bush would have no credibility at all
if the capitalist media and the Congress weren't so terrified
that even the slightest whisper of dissent might lead them to
be branded as well. That's the cowardly political climate the
Bush gang have created with their doctrine of "you're either
with us or with the terrorists."
Reprinted from the May 16, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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