EDITORIAL

U.S. Sanctions Are a
Knee to the Neck of Millions

By Doug Mallouk

[Print version of this editorial]

Mr. Mallouk initially submitted this text as a letter to the editor of the Baltimore Sun. He is a long-time LaRouche Movement organizer.

The Sun Opinion Editor Tricia Bishop contends that the Derek Chauvin verdict, though a victory, is no cause for celebration. In her April 20th commentary, she says, “only a recognition of our shared humanity can change U.S. justice.” She’s absolutely right—but for completely different reasons than the ones she cites.

A cynically evil adage says that one death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic. Comparing the (rightful) popular outrage at the George Floyd atrocity with the studied indifference exhibited by so many to the innumerable lives destroyed by U.S. regime-change wars, and the even more deadly regimen of sanctions imposed by the successive Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden Administrations, one has to wonder how deeply corrupted our thinking has become.

Recently, Cardinal Mario Zenari, the Apostolic Nuncio to Syria, charged that the U.S. sanctions have driven fully 90% of that tortured nation’s population to poverty and near starvation, putting Syria just behind Yemen (another victim of economic warfare emanating from Washington) in that catastrophic situation. A bevy of UN officials has testified to similar effect with respect to Venezuela, Iran and other targets on the U.S.-UK hit list. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo all but pled guilty to genocide in “explaining” that the purpose of sanctions is to impose so much privation on the civilians that they rise up against their putatively murderous rulers. Yes, you read that right: our government is perpetrating starvation, disease, and misery “to save lives”!

Schiller Institute founder Helga LaRouche, former Virginia State Senator (and decorated Vietnam veteran Marine Aviator) Col. Richard Black (ret.), and many others, have demanded that the barbaric form of warfare known as sanctions be suspended forthwith. Where on earth are the protestors decrying this huge crime?

Justice for George Floyd? Absolutely! But when is the U.S. government, with its ponderous weight, going to remove its knee from the necks of the millions victimized by its bombs, and even worse, its sanctions?