'Indeed. Robert Hill personally, as Defence Minister, directed Australian bombing raids and missile strikes in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.'

Human Rights Watch analysed the deaths of the innocents in Iraq. In one of their reports it was stated the vast majority of civillian deaths during the invasion were caused by ground fire and not airborne arms or missiles.

Why the need to make such general statements without evidence? It only calls into question objectivity.

xoddam, I’m not talking about self-declared political prisoners nor am I talking about the likes of Timothy McVeigh who, because they might be at odds with the government decide to blow up a building. Nor am I talking about illegal combatants being rebadged as political prisoners. Under such rules we could say that USA soldiers are merely armed public relations operatives hired by the government. I’m talking about the 75 Cuban writers and dissidents who were thrown into the slammer by Castro for having the temerity to oppose Castro. Noam Chomsky has views which are at odds with GWB but I am not aware of any arrest warrant bearing his name. If you have any information about Mr Chomsky’s arrest or relocation to Guantanamo Bay please inform the debate.

Ms Clinton is for troops our of Iraq; fighting terror with cooperation; asking Arabic and muslim countries to take women leaders more seriously; yes to stem cell research…..etc. Does she not hold heterodox views to those held by GWB and the GOP?

Castro is a loathsome dictator who has done far more to impoverish his people than the actions of the USA, but I agree the sanctions should be removed. They only end up hurting those who are already Castro’s victims, namely ordinary Cubans.

As Saddam demonstrated so clearly, tyrants don’t give a hoot if sanctions hurt their citizens, so long as they and their cronies and families can continue to live as a privileged elite.

Indeed, by allowing their citizens’ suffering to be blamed on foreign governments, they divert attention from sanctioned governments’ own culpability and can actually reinforce their power.

Castro is surely living proof of the ineffectiveness of sanctions in achieving regime change.

Most of today’s Australians weren’t born when he seized power. During Castro’s dictatorship, the USA has had 10 heads of state – Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush snr, Clinton, and Bush jnr. He is, I believe, the longest serving head of state in the world outside the hereditary monarchies (although given that his brother appears to be his anointed successor, maybe running Cuba is to become a family affair).

The sanctions should be dropped because they clearly don’t work.

"Viva Cuba !!"

That might well happen, once the dictator Fidel, finally falls
off the proverbial perch, the sooner the better!

The end of food ration cards, the end of state control over
everything, finally perhaps freedom of speech and the press,
will no doubt be welcomed by most Cubans. Shame on Fidel for
not giving them a chance to vote on all of this and kick him
out long ago.

But then Fidel, as a fanatical control freak, would have trouble
dealing with his people telling him to get stuffed. Thats politics
for you.

I must be very slow, but I noticed that again in this article we are told about "international laws".

What I would like to be told about these laws are:

1. Who enacts these laws?

2. By what right do they enact them?

3. If an organisation enacts them is it democratically constituted?

4. Can they be repealed?

We seem to be moving into a very anti-democratic world where people say "human rights are too important to be controlled by parliaments", and where the consent of the people is totally disregarded. Of course, we know that the UN general assembly is a joke, and that its resolutions can be read with amusement, particularly as they come form an organisation where India has the same representation as Nauru. Possibly this is because the radical left cause has given up on ever obtaining the consent of the people for their programs. This is not really a surprise, as since the time of Lenin the communist party knew full well that they never at any time had the support of a majority of the people.

Viva Cuba!!

http://www.therealcuba.com/index.htm