Gaza/Cuba: Do Embargos Work?

This article is about my feelings in regards to Gaza being big in the news because of Israel bombing it in reaction to the constant barrage of small rocket attacks into southern Israel. I claim to be no expert, in fact I do not know too much about Israel and Gaza other than things I have heard in the news and read about on the Internet. I may have my facts wrong, after all I'm not a history professor that has been studying the history of the Middle East or other places, I'm just a guy off the street thinking about the things I see and hear in the news about a place far from home on the other side of the world. If you have different views or other facts or know of my facts being wrong tell me about it, you could change my viewpoint and make me have to revisit the matter in a new blog.

When I first heard about Israel going into Gaza and bombing them I thought, well you can't expect Israel to sit there while rockets keep raining down on them and not retaliate. Then I started paying a bit more attention to what was being said and what was going on over there. Thinking about the embargo against Gaza I thought about Cuba closer to the United States.

I have been reading about Cubans eating patties of red mud because they are starving. I'm not sure if the people of Gaza were starving by that degree, but they are now for sure. The main reason the U.S. doesn't get more crap about Cuba is because of a few miles of ocean between us. Otherwise they would probably be out throwing rocks at us or firing crude rockets towards us. I think that Gaza is kind of like that. They are closed off from the outside world between Israel and Egypt. The amount of anything needed for daily life is restricted at the boarders. Kind of similar to a bunch of rats stuck in the bottom a barrel, they have no life, no food, and no way to get out. As things get disparate they are going to viciously attack anything edible that gets near them or start attacking each other. By firing unguided rockets into Israel factions in Gaza have no intentions or hopes to bring down Israel, they are just trying to spread the misery, bring attention to their plight, and show their discontent with the conditions that Israel is and has been imposing on them.

As in many other conflicts between countries there is a wide disproportional of technology and fire power being used. Israel controls the airways, the water ways around Gaza, firing guided missiles and smart bombs killing hundreds, Gaza is firing unguided missiles and mortar rounds killing dozens. The people of Gaza can not leave to have Israel and Hamas fight things out, they are forced to keep moving around between the two waring groups trying to stay clear of the crossfire. They have no food or water and they are running out of medical supplies. The people have no where to go to escape the crossfire and even the UN has stopped taking in supplies because they are being fired upon. With the whole world in an economic recession everyone seems to be content with destroying homes and businesses and using up valuable resources. There are no solutions for a peaceful end and there is no honor.

Peace on Earth Goodwill Towards Man

I know the United States is as bad as any of the rest the countries, but during this holiday season when supposedly we are to think of peace and feel love towards our fellow human beings it is too bad that there are so many people in so many countries at war with each other. If I were to pray for anything it would be for the world population to be at peace with each other. It all seems so senseless for us to kill each other.

The very area of the world that first promoted peace and goodwill to the world is one of the areas that is most caught up in the fighting. The U.S. is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russia just had a squabble with Georgia and is supplying Iran with missiles and showing support for Cuba, Israel is fighting with the Gaza strip, the British, Pakistan, and India are all either fighting or building up troupes to fight, the pirates in Somalia, almost everyone is involved in one way or another in various wars and confrontations with other countries. What good is it? What is war good for? Who really profits by war other than the small handful of arms suppliers and how much do they promote war between the different countries of the world?

Think of the world's economic problems, the problems with pollution, the dwindling non-renewable resources. Think of all the money that is wasted fighting each other. Think of the grief war causes in loss of life and limb, and the falling of financial markets. Russia bankrupted itself keeping up the cold war with the United States. It is all such a waste. Think of all the money being spent on the machines of war, the amount of oil used in powering these machines.

Now think of all the good that could be done if all this money spent warring was instead spent trying to find solutions to the world's problems. Think about if all the human resources spent on trying to destroy each other and our resources was instead used to improve the lives of people around the world, how much good could be done and how much better prepared we could all be when oil and other renewable and non-renewable resources does run out. We work together in space with people from the same countries that we fight on the ground.

We are all people, all human beings. We might be different colors and speak different languages, but we are all the same. We all have pretty much the same goals. We all want to find someone to love. We all want to raise our families, we want to provide for our families. We want to take pride in what we do to provide for our families. We all morn when we lose loved ones. We all want to be healthy and have our basic necessities met. We want to have a clean, dry, warm places in which to live, we want to be free of diseases and disabilities. When we take up arms and kill people we are killing people who are just like us in more ways than they are different than us. The people who are killed all have mothers, fathers, family and friends that will miss them when they are gone.

We must all try to figure out how to end this madness.