White House sanctions Cuba, but not Saudi Arabia

According to the geopolitical analysis site STRATFOR, sanctions are “a coercive tool to compel a targeted entity to adjust its behavior” and can be effected in a number of ways and, indeed, applied for very different reasons.

An intriguing aspect of sanctions’ imposition is that some of these reasons are not intended primarily to alter the target’s behavior but rather to penalize it for failing to follow the policies of the Punisher.

For sixty years the U.S. regime’s embargo policy has been inflicted on Cuba, a small Caribbean island some 90 miles from the Florida Keys which has been malevolently victimized by successive administrations — bar one — in Washington.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961 was a failed attack launched by the CIA during the Kennedy administration to push Cuban leader Fidel Castro from power.

In February 1962, President John F. Kennedy proclaimed an embargo on trade between the USA and Cuba, in response to certain actions taken by the Cuban Government, and directed the Departments of Commerce and the Treasury to implement the embargo, which remains in place today.

However, the State Department official line is that the Washington regime maintains a comprehensive economic embargo on the Republic of Cuba.

In the case of Cuba the energetic, expensive and illegal campaigns by the USA have failed to topple the Havana administration which, of course, is very far from democratic, as Cuba is a one-party state with an autocratic leader, just like North Korea and Saudi Arabia, to take a couple of examples.

It is notable that North Korea, with its totalitarian absolute dictatorship, is viewed as an implacable enemy of the USA while Saudi Arabia, with its totalitarian absolute monarchy, is a top purchaser of U.S. weaponry.

Currently, President Biden is “reviewing” some future arms sales to the Saudis which from 2015 to 2020 totaled over 64 billion dollars, but relations seem to be cordial enough.

Some observers might consider this a trifle inconsistent, given that during the presidential election campaign, now-President Biden referred to Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” state with no redeeming social value, but no doubt he has his reasons for rethinking that election stance.

The treatment of the State Department concludes that, significant human rights issues included, unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings, by the government; forced disappearance by the government.

But also torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading (sanction) treatment of political opposition, detainees, and prisoners by security forces (Guantanamo); harsh and life-threatening private prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detentions in the ‘democratic’ USA.

So why do U.S. sanctions continue against Cuba, while U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia continue to be cordial?

The State Department explains that so far as the latter is concerned the countries “have a common interest in preserving the stability, security, and prosperity of the Gulf region and consult closely on a wide range of regional and global issues.

While they both “enjoy robust cultural and educational ties” and their “partnership is rooted in more than seven decades of close friendship and cooperation” which is slightly longer than the time-span of Washington’s anti-Cuba campaign.

To be sure, the Saudis didn’t invite the former Soviet Union to station nuclear missiles in their territory as the Cubans did following the Bay of Pigs fiasco.

This brought Soviet nuclear missiles close to the U.S. mainland in similar fashion to the earlier deployment of U.S. Jupiter nuclear missiles in Turkey which had brought Moscow within range.

Cuba could never be forgiven for its actions, and the sanctions grew in number and range until in 1982 President Reagan increased their severity after designating Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism for its support of freedom guerrillas in South America.

In 2016 Obama went to Havana — the first U.S. President to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928 — and in a standing-room only speech declared that “I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas.

I have come here to extend the hand of friendship to the Cuban people. I’ve made it clear that the USA has neither the capacity, nor the intention to impose change on Cuba.

What changes come will depend upon the Cuban people. We will not impose our political or economic system on you.” It looked as if an era of pragmatism and sanity was dawning.

But the dawn was doomed by the Pentagon military administration who promptly advised the White House to all agreements that had benefited the Cuban people.

The US regime was determined to obliterate all domestic and international improvements initiated by Obama and largely succeeded, thereby increasing human suffering in many regions of the world.

It was thought that Biden might be more sensible, but on April 16, 2021 the White House announced that a policy shift is not a top priority and that any alteration “would be governed by two key principles.

The support for democracy and human rights, and the belief that Americans, especially Cuban-Americans, were the best ambassadors for US style freedom and prosperity.” No mention of Cuban Cubans; just Cubans who are born Americans.

But what about Saudi Arabia, where there is no democratically elected government and human rights are practically non-existent?

Commenting on the murder of the U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives, the White House stated that the objective is to re-calibrate the relationship, prevent this from ever happening again and keep on working together with Saudi leadership.

So there it is: Cuba will remain one of Washington’s chosen enemies, subject to sanctions that hurt ordinary citizens while achieving nothing positive.

While relations with the murderous autocratic Saudi regime will be “re-calibrated” in order to make it easier to “work together” with a bunch of barbarian puppets who buy expensive U.S. weaponry to commit Shi’ite genocide in Yemen.

Strategic Culture / ABC Flash Point WW III News 2021.