Friday, August 12, 2005
Iraq and Cuba
Howard Zinn writes about a subject I wrote about back in January, 2004:
"True, we liberated Iraq from Saddam Hussein, but not from us. Just as in 1898 we liberated Cuba from Spain, but not from us. Spanish tyranny was overthrown, but the US established a military base in Cuba, as we are doing in Iraq. US corporations moved into Cuba, just as Bechtel and Halliburton and the oil corporations are moving into Iraq. The US framed and imposed, with support from local accomplices, the constitution that would govern Cuba, just as it has drawn up, with help from local political groups, a constitution for Iraq. Not a liberation. An occupation."Zinn neglects to point out that thanks to the Platt amendment, which the U.S. forced into the Cuban Constitution as a condition for leaving, American troops are still occupying a portion of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Cuba, 104 years later. So as long as the cry of "Out Now!" is being heard, let me repeat a call I made last June: "U.S. Out Now...of Guantanamo! Restore full sovereignty to the occupied territory of...Cuba!"
