"For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open." (Mark 4.22)

Speaking about Cuba, Tom Crumpacker* is not exaggerating when he compares Bush’s annexationist plan to Hitler’s Mein Kampf. In fact, these are the only examples of publicly announced plans to subjugate a nation.

The two programs are equally genocidal and racist. In my previous article on this topic, I noted that if Bush’s Plan were implemented, Cuba would be destroyed as a nation and its citizens would be enslaved until extermination. That was what happened to millions of people in European countries occupied by Hitler’s army.

The blockade against Cuba is undoubtedly an act of genocide, and has always been. A policy which is intended to "cause hunger and desperation" –as it was recorded on eventually declassified official documents drawn up in 1959 and 1960– can only be described as genocidal. The plan approved in 2004 and the additional measures Bush endorsed this past Monday are intended to increase Cubans’ suffering. But the Bush administration wants go beyond that. Hitler’s disciple, just like his teacher, knows no bounds.

The blockade was conceived and has been implemented for close to half a century to seriously harm Cuba and its citizens. But now Washington wants to extend it to other countries and peoples of the Third World.

A KATRINA FOR EVERYONE

Some measures included in Bush’s Plan seek to impair Cuba’s medical cooperation with other nations. The US administration wants to obstruct the provision of medical services being provided in Cuba —or by Cuban doctors in other countries— to thousands of patients to cure cataracts and other eye diseases.

They are trying to prevent Cuba from training thousands of young people as doctors and other specialists. Likewise, they persist in sabotaging the work of our physicians, technicians and nurses in other countries. Bush believes he can cripple the "Operacion Milagro" program, wreck the Henry Reeve Medical Contingent, and bridle Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine.

Of course, things are easier said than done. But whether Bush succeeds or not, those are some of the measures he has just approved. That is some of the filth he has just announced.

The American government should "deny export licenses" for medical equipment that could be used "in large-scale medical programs that cater to tourists and foreign patients" or in "tourist or foreign care institutions." This is what Bush proclaimed on pages 31 and 32 of the document he endorsed on June 10.

Ironically, such an endeavor would entail the recognition of a fact that is becoming more difficult to conceal: Cuba’s noble gesture of internationalism and solidarity with millions of people from Pakistan, Indonesia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Andes and Central America.

Neither the arrogant empire nor any of its minions in other capitalist countries can demonstrate anything even remotely similar to this genuine international effort. Our cooperation is an example of a struggle for life and for the fundamental rights of millions of human beings. None of them is capable of doing what this small, blockaded and persecuted island does.

We feel indignation to know that thousands of victims of Katrina Hurricane in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are still demanding help. Many of the victims were displaced and are currently living as refugees in their own country. A great number died unprotected and unassisted. Cuba’s Henry Reeve Medical Contingent— which Bush now wants to destroy— was not allowed to assist those people. Thousands of children disappeared and thousands of parents are still looking for them. New Orleans and the Katrina Hurricane will always remain symbols of the inhuman character of capitalism. Bush’s political short-sightedness over the Katrina affair will forever haunt him.

It is well known that Bush despises Black and poor Americans, as Hitler did. He does not give a damn whether they die abandoned. Now we also know, because he has just admitted it openly, that he also hates all poor people, Indians, black and multi-racial people of the world. He must be stopped and defeated.

Crumpacker reminds us that many Europeans simply ignored Mein Kampf when it was published in 1924. Fifteen years later, the worst of tragedies befell them.

History must not repeat itself.

The situation today is worse. Bush has weapons his teacher did not know of. Hitler was in prison when he wrote his despicable pamphlet, but his pupil is on the loose. There is no time to waste.

(*) Planning for the Re-Colonization of Cuba, taken from the Internet. Tom Crumpacker lives in Austin, Texas. He is a member of the Miami Coalition to End the US Embargo of Cuba.