One of history’s mostrnfamous coinsrnNapoleon^srnGoldrn1806-1814rnGuaranteedrnauthentic goldrn20 Franc ”Napoleon”rnAt least 175 years old!rnOne of Napoleon’s lastingrnachievements was to instituternthe gold 20 Franc coin, commonlyrncalled the “Napoleon.”rnAfter declaring himself Emperor,rnhe issued these magnificentrngold coins bearing hisrnportrait. They circulated in thernFirst Empire from the height ofrnhis power until his defeat atrnWaterloo.rnGuaranteed Genuinernand select qualityrnInternational Coins & Currency,rnInc., has located a small grouprnof select Very Fine gold Napoleonsrnand certified each coin asrnan authentic heirloom of thernNapoleonic era. As a specialrnoffer to new customers, theserngold coins are being sold at thernfollowing prices: $199 each; 3rncoins, $575; 5 coins, $950. Limitrn5. (Order #10698).rnTo order by a majorrncredit card, call toll-freern1-800-451-4463 at any time.rnOr send your check or moneyrnorder to: International Coins &rnCurrency, Inc., 62 Ridge Street,rnBox 218, Dept. 3095, Montpelier,rnVT 05601 Add $2 for postage.rnServing collectors for 20 years. I 3995rnen over as almost his only foreign policy.rnSanctions against the Serbs are starvingrnthem and ruining their economy; sanctionsrnagainst the Haitians are accomplishingrnsimilar goals; and there are arnwide variety of sanctions against thernNorth Koreans to prevent them fromrnacquiring one or two puny nuclearrnweapons. Of course, by the time this articlernappears in early fall, Clinton mayrnhave already decided it is worthwhilernto go to war against any of the threerncountries above.rnTypicallv, these Clintonian sanctionsrnembargo all trade with the hapless countryrnexcept for “humanitarian” food andrnmedicine, but in practice food andrnmedicine can’t get into the country either,rnas the Serbs and I laitians have discovered.rnFor how can every plane andrnevery truck be searched in order to exemptrnwhatever food or medicine mightrnbe on board? Typically, too, sanctions,rnfrom the mildest to the severest, don’trn”work” in the sense of forcing the countryrnto obey American commands. Theyrndon’t work for a simple reason: if thernsanctions are mild, they don’t have muchrneffect; but if they are severe, the economicrnpain is inflicted not on the country’srnpower elite, who manage to livernhigh off the hog regardless of whatrnhappens, but on the country’s haplessrnsubject population. Victims of Americanrnembargoes in Serbia are notrnMiloshevitch and his ruling elite, butrnthe Serbian people; sufferers fromrnstarvation in Haiti are not the rulingrnmilitary, but the subject people.rnRemarkably, the more candid advocatesrnof sanctions admit they don’t work,rnwhich means that they can only escalaternto the severest forms. The UnitedrnStates must then either forget about thernwhole thing or launch a military strike.rnSo what’s the point? The point of sanctionsrnis to shore up the psyche and thernpolitical prestige of the sanetioners, thatrnis, the American rulers. To the hue andrncry of the pundits and the sentimentalrnwatchers of CNN who ask, “How canrnyou sit and watch [fill in almost anyrncountry] and do nothing?” the Presidentrncan reply: “I am doing something. I’mrnimposing sanctions.” As far as actuallyrnchanging the actions of the despised governments,rnthis is almost beside the point.rnSanctions “work” by buying time so thatrnthe President can baby the situationrnalong for another few weeks or monthsrnwithout having to commit to any realrncourse of action; they also “work” by enablingrnhim to throw a few bones to thernpermanent-war crowd and allowing himrnto oppose whatever foreign evil is beingrnheld up for attack this month. And whornknows? If the President babies the situationrnlong enough, maybe somethingrnwill turn up, Allah will provide, or maybernhe can stick his successor with the accumulatingrnmess.rnMeanwhile, the permanent-war crusaders,rnthe laptop bombardiers, are notrnreally satisfied; in the name of the HighrnMoral Ground, they keep calling for Serbianrnor Haitian or Korean or Iraqi blood.rnBut even if their full satisfaction has tornbe postponed, they are partially appeasedrnby contemplating the sight of thernUnited States, in its moral crusade, atrnleast inflicting starvation on millions ofrnpoor Serbs, Bosnians, Rwandans, etc. It’srna measure of the debasement of currentrnpolitical discourse that the thirsters afterrnstarvation and mass murder are consideredrnthe “moralists,” while those of usrnopposed to such measures are denouncedrnas “selfish,” “uncaring,” andrn”standing by while …” In the end, however,rnparticipating in mass murder andrnimposed starvation seems to rank a bitrnworse on one’s scale of values than refusingrnto do so.rnBut the biggest delusion concerningrnsanctions is the notion that they are arnmoderate alternative to war. Under internationalrnlaw, sanctions are consideredrnan act of war, and indeed how couldrnthey not be? In old-fashioned pre-rnWoodrow Wilson international law, nationsrnwere supposed to leave the trade ofrnother countries alone; even warringrncountries were not supposed to interferernwith the rights of neutral nations to tradernwith their enemies. Moreover, in oldfashionedrnpre-Wilson international law,rncarved out over the centuries by scholasticsrnand jurists and more or less adheredrnto by all civilized nations, civilians of enemyrncountries are never supposed to berntargeted. You are not supposed to bombrnenemy civilians unless they are directly inrnthe path of military attack (a fortifiedrncity in the path of battle). Sanctionsrnand embargoes, however, are pure attemptsrnto injure the civilian populationrnand thereby put pressure on governmentrnto change its ways. But on the contrary,rnthe sanctioned government will be ablernto rally the public behind it even further,rnin common and justifiable hatredrnagainst the American sanctioner, whornhas not even had the candor and thernguts to declare war.rn46/CHRONlCLESrnrnrn