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Comment by Touche | Hacker News Reader

Sanctions are almost always too weak. Any sanction that the government can withstand is too weak and will have the affect you describe. A strong sanction that says "release the prisoner immediately" will be short and not affect citizens long enough to create such a sentiment.

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What kind of sanction do you have in mind?

No use of airspace and no trade with NATO countries until the prisoners are released. It would take a week.

No use of airspace is already being discussed and likely going to happen.

NATO is a military alliance, not a trade union. There's no way for them to organize what you're suggesting.

> It would take a week.

Fidel might like to have a word with you...

NATO members do talk to each other over a lot of different channels. It will take more than a week to organize, but it can be done.

But it will be as e.g. an EU action, not a NATO action. (I have doubts they will get anyone on the west side of the Atlantic to sign on, but I hope I'm wrong.) And the EU has already been acting.

My point is: There's a lot of people in this thread demanding a vague "something" be done, but it's really not clear whether there is "something" between what the EU's plan has already been for months and a hot war, other than some ill-considered immediate panic.

Was Fidel being offered sanctions to end by releasing a specific hostage? Or was he being asked to relinquish power?

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