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Below is our translation from the Spanish of an article from telesurtv.net, with commentary and notes [in brackets] by Vince Dhimos. The main problem with the Western grassroots is not a lack of intelligence to analyse geopolitical events but a complete blockage of the part of the brain that has this capability. The difference between East and West nowadays is that, on the one hand, Westerners are imbued with the notion that, while the US makes serious mistakes, its leaders are generally good people and God is on their side, while Easterners know that the eternal wars, sanctions and regime change activities of the US are systemic, and the mischief they have wrought is intentional and devoid of any moral basis. This is because the US people are only peripherally involved in the decisions coming out of Washington, which are made almost exclusively by a coterie of gangsters that I have attempted to list here. I have also tried to explain here and here, in the simplest terms just why the main two foreign agents in US politics do as they do and why America, both the Establishment and the grassroots, almost never oppose them in the least. The above-linked articles explain why most people reading about US sanctions will never admit that, in terms of its wars, sanctions and regime change activities, the US is actually acting illegally and immorally. BEGIN TRANSLATION Consequences of the US economic blockade against several countries by Arnold August The United States has imposed sanctions and economically blocked countries such as Iran, Venezuela, Iraq, Yemen and Cuba, in order to strangle its population and force a regime change. With the false flag of freedom, "to plague America with hunger and misery," as Simón Bolívar, would say, the US has economically and financially blocked countries that do not cater to its geopolitical interests. A year ago it imposed the first round of sanctions against Iran to hamper the development of the Persian nation. Countries such as Cuba and Venezuela are also victims of the commercial, economic and financial blockade of Washington. Iran blockade The illegal economic blockade against Tehran, although hidden behind the idea of seeking the prosperity of the Iranians, is intended to affect financial transactions with the Islamic Republic and the country's important oil sector. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Washington's policy is destined to fail: “We are glad that, despite constant plots against the Islamic Revolution, the illegal US sanctions haven't achieved their goals.” Iraq has also been targeted. Although the USA pressures oil exports and banking operations, the Iranian president said his country has several ways to market crude. Iran is a main attraction for US interests in the region, because in the almost 40 years of the Islamic Revolution, oil reserves have doubled in the nation, which places Iran as an energy power in the American sights. Eshaq Yahanguiri, first vice president of Iran, said the country "is currently selling as much oil as it needs," so the US sanctions regime is doomed to failure. Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the administrations that have presided over the White House have tried to strangle the island’s economy, however, an absolute blockade against the largest island of the Antilles was imposed on February 7, 1962. Former President John F. Kennedy had no second thoughts about dismembering the country's development in his eagerness to overthrow the nascent revolutionary government. Since then, no administration has lifted the genocidal policy against Cuba. For almost 60 years, US administrations have insisted on immobilizing and isolating the Island, as well as provoking disenchantment of the population, which is economically limited by the consequences of the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba. The Cubans have been affected by a suffocating policy that has caused a total loss of more than 930 billion dollars since the policy was instated. The blockade limits Cuba's exchange with third countries, and hinders the importation of materials, medicines and technical equipment for the development of the nation. It is a policy that violates international law and affects all sectors of the economy. Venezuela on the list As if the term "blockade" was the first in the White House dictionary, the current administration of President Donald Trump signed earlier this week a new executive order that limits Venezuela's transactions with the United States. While Trump knows that Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro was democratically elected, he insists that the government is "illegitimate" and seeks to apply an economic blockade against Caracas. The new decree attempts, once again, to be extraterritorial by imposing sanctions against countries that try to help Venezuela. To the list are added countries like Nicaragua to complete Washington’s triangle in Latin America with Cuba and Venezuela. Libya: a country in chaos The USA did not suspend its sanctions on Libya until it received the news that President Muammar Gaddafi had been killed with the help of NATO. To prevent Libyan state banks and companies from making transactions in the US, the Barack Obama administration imposed a series of trade sanctions against Tripoli to immobilize the country. Since the fall of Gaddafi, Libya has been a country in chaos and systematic violence and instability, a country through which only migrants trying to flee to Europe travel. Meanwhile, oil and the important natural resources of the African nation are put in the hands of Western powers through their business with transnationals. Syria in the spotlight In 2004 the US accused Damascus of possessing weapons of mass destruction and of offering help to rebel groups in Iraq, although Washington's aid to terrorists in the region was well known. The sanctions imposed by the White House against Syria prohibited the export of most of the country's assets, as well as recurring paralysis of the country's accounts and companies in the US. As justification the US claim that Damascus represented a threat to Washington, a title for which Venezuela and Cuba also qualify. The current administration of Donald Trump has also had Syria targeted by the blockades it implements throughout the world. Measures against the nation bring the encirclement of crude oil supplies in the country's ports, and have recruited Lebanon to contribute to the sanctions. "The medium and long-term US agenda is to transform Syria and Iraq into three separate territories, based on lies and ambiguities," says Michel Chossudovsky, an economist at the University of Ottawa, Canada. [I need to insert a note here on Chosudovsky, whom I consider one of the best-informed and authoritative experts on geopolitics. Precisely because he is so undeniably brilliant, the Western Establishment has targeted him with a relentless defamation campaign. In fact, almost whenever I have mentioned his site Global Research as a reference, I have had emails belittling him as a “conspiracy theorist.” This is grossly unfair and none of the petty sites that condemn Chossudovsky have even a tenth of his knowledge and expertise in world affairs! Vince] For his part, the Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Walid al-Moallem, argues that the economic blockade that the US maintains against Syria it is a kind of terrorism because it affects all of the Syrian people. One of Washington's latest sanctions against Damascus, implemented this year, punishes anyone who attempts to establish economic relations with Syria or plays a decisive role in the project for the reconstruction of the country. Despite being a country that has suffered from a war against US-backed terrorists since 2011, Syria is an important target of the American nation in its economic war. Yugoslavia In 1991, the USA supported the sanctions approved by the UN Security Council against Yugoslavia to block bank accounts abroad. The financial blockade continued in 1998 when the population of Yugoslavia saw its licenses, accounts and assets blocked. Companies that failed to comply with the US sanctions had to pay a fine of more than $500,000, while individuals who failed to comply with them were fined $250,000. Yugoslavia was the objective to stimulate economically the mercenary movements that the CIA was already stimulating. [I had written had written that in Serbia, NATO had murdered over 13,500 Europeans, and yet not one European member dropped out of the alliance as a result of this atrocity. That is the extent of the brainwashing administered by the US!] Yemen and the weight of a conflict Frozen assets and denial of entry to US territory by the Yemeni government were some of the sanctions imposed by the US against Yemen in 2012. Obama assailed the country again in 2014, preventing government officials from accessing their assets under US jurisdiction, and also prohibited US entities and citizens from conducting financial transactions with Yemen. To this is added that the White House has been an ally of Saudi Arabia since it began its conflict with Yemen since 2015. Although recently the Senate withdrew its military support to Saudi Arabia, the US supports the air and sea blockade imposed by the Arab country on Yemen, making it difficult for medicines and food to arrive. Relevant: https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/attack-on-iran-would-be-an-attack-on-russia/ http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/news--analysis/vince-on-quora-economic-sanctions-are-immoral http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/economics-and-finance/europe-and-the-rest-of-the-world-shakes-off-the-chains-of-sanctions http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/economics-and-finance/sanctions-on-venezuela-boomerang-on-us
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