Saturday, 06 March 2010 12:15
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by Jacob G. Hornberger
Even while employing sanctions against Iran, the U.S. government is confirming that sanctions do not work.
The Chinese government has threatened to impose sanctions on the United States if the U.S. government persists in its decision to sell weapons, including F-16s, to Taiwan. According to the New York Times, the threat was issued by a top Chinese military official, who did not specify what the sanctions would be. However, a possibility would be the wholesale dumping of U.S. government securities onto the international financial markets. Those instruments represent the enormous amounts of money that China has loaned the U.S. government to fund its enterprises in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Notwithstanding the U.S. government’s steadfast insistence that its sanctions will induce Iranian government officials to submit to U.S. demands regarding its nuclear program, the U.S. government is steadfastly refusing to succumb to China’s threat to impose sanctions on the United States.
Wouldn’t you think that U.S. officials would want to use this opportunity to show the world that sanctions really do work? Imagine: U.S. officials could announce, “Given China’s threat to impose sanctions on our country, we have decided to not go forward with our plans to sell weaponry to Taiwan.” What better way to show that sanctions work than that?
But we all know that that isn’t going to happen. U.S. government officials are a proud bunch. They’re not about to let Chinese government officials push them around.
But what about China’s ability to dump all those U.S. debt instruments onto the market. Surely U.S. officials realize that such an action could cause untold monetary havoc for the U.S. dollar and, thus, severely threaten the financial well-being of the American people.
It doesn’t matter. U.S. officials would never bow to the demands of China’s government, no matter how high the cost to the American citizenry.
But the obvious questions arise? Why wouldn’t Iranian officials be expected to react in the same way? Why would anyone expect them to succumb to demands of U.S. officials? Aren’t they just as proud as U.S. government officials are? Wouldn’t they be just as willing to sacrifice the well-being of their citizenry as U.S. officials are?
The fact is that the citizenry of any country are viewed simply as pawns by both their own government and the foreign government that is imposing the sanctions.
For example, as I pointed out here, the U.S. sanctions against Iran have caused several plane crashes, killing hundreds of Iraqi citizens. Yet, that hasn’t persuaded the U.S. government to lift the sanctions, just as it hasn’t induced the Iranian government to bow to U.S. demands. The Iranian citizenry are considered expendable by both governments.
Recall the brutal sanctions that the U.S. government enforced against Iraq for more than 10 years. Every year, they were causing the deaths of thousands of Iraqi children from infectious illnesses, malnutrition, etc. Those deaths didn’t cause Saddam Hussein to leave office, which is what the U.S. government wanted. Equally important, U.S. officials were indifferent to the deaths of all those Iraqi children. In fact, the official U.S. position was that those deaths were “worth it,” the term used by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright when asked about the deaths by “Sixty Minutes.”
Or consider the brutal embargo that the U.S. government has enforced against Cuba for decades. It has produced untold economic harm to the Cuban people. U.S. officials couldn’t care less. They steadfastly maintain that one of these days the embargo will finally succeed in persuading Fidel Castro (and his brother) to give up power and permit a U.S.-approved ruler to be substituted in his stead. Not surprisingly, the Castro brothers have reacted to the decades-long U.S. embargo in the same way that the U.S. government is responding to China’s threat to impose sanctions on the United States — by refusing to succumb to U.S. demands no matter how much the Cuban people must suffer as a consequence.
With its refusal to bow to China’s threat of sanctions, the U.S. government is confirming that sanctions simply don’t work. Given the great harm the U.S. government has inflicted on foreign citizens with its own sanctions, it’s time for U.S. officials to lift their sanctions against Iran, Cuba, and everyone else.
Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.
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2010-03-09 02:38:50 |Editor| Shahram Vahdany
Dear Mr. Sam
By your comment I assume that you are an Iranian. Nevertheless my belief is that you have entirely missed the point in this article.
These days anyone who speaks out against US intervention is labeled anti-American or pro-dictatorship, ignoring the fact that US involvement has not helped any opposition movement in the world. Not one. Why should Iran be an exception?
There is no argument that Iranian people have the right to liberty and freedom like others. But they are the only ones who can decide the best course of action for themselves.
The only thing others can and must do is support the legitimate rights of the Iranian people; of all people. No government has the right to dictate their version of democracy and freedom to others.
In the end, one should be mindful of the fact that the sanction against Iran first and foremost hurts exactly those brave souls on the streets of Tehran and other cities in Iran.
My sincere best wishes
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2010-03-07 19:23:12 |89.165.60.xxx| Sam
I think I wrote my comment in an inappropliate anginess and I apologize to the writer of the article and other commentators. But I still insist in my opinion that doing nothing to deal with such a tyranic apocolyptic regiem is like to cooperate with it against its own people. I know and I also felt it dificult after 31 years of American led sanctions againts this regiem that meant againts us ,the people of Iran. But the main problem for us is not American sanctions. Seriously we prefer Chinees Buttoms on our shoulders rather than American Buttons! Because American Buttoms which are more tought and they nrealy hurt!
Guys , I understand your points. But what I`m saying is living in without simple basic rights is not what you can understand.Believe me. Nobody cares about American president intentions to keep Islamic regiem under pressure. What we feel is when you squese them they get very angry and start to ease on us. When you turn your back , they squeez us hardly. Believe me, it`s very hard. It`s an Ideological tyrany, maybe not more harsh than Saddam, But harsh enough...
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If the goal of sanctioning is to force governments of sovereign nations to capitulate to the imperialist demands of the government of the United States government on behalf of its corporate owners, then no, sanctions do not work.
However, if the goal is to soften a target for eventual invasion through sanctions that will cripple a sovereign nations military, industry, agriculture, health care system and economy because it can't get supplies and perform maintenance. Thereby causing the deaths of untold numbers of innocent civilians, then yes, sanctions do work.
The subsequent invasions will be complete and utter failure and may lead to the final World War mankind will ever witness.
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2010-03-06 22:11:20 |206.174.164.xxx| William deB. Mills - Do Sanctions Work?
Mr. Bradley,
The idea that sanctions are part of a long-term plan that crosses multiple U.S. administrations likely to include those of both parties intended to weaken Iran for the purpose of facilitating a U.S. invasion is very disturbing, not only because of what it says about Washington but because it obviously sounds very much like the history of Washington's now-19-year-long conflict with Iraq.
OK, let's take this hypothesis at face value: assuming, for argument's sake, that such is Washington's plan, is it working?
Yes, Iran's petrochemical industry does seem to have been severely weakened. Iran also has trouble getting spare parts for old U.S. military equipment.
On the other hand, Iran not only is maintaining cooperative economic ties with Russia and China, but its economic ties with Brazil and Turkey are booming. That is not exactly my definition of being isolated.
In addition, the effort to impose sanctions is causing pro-American states who don't like the principle of economic warfare to improve political ties with Iran. (See "Is Washington Building a Pro-Iran Coalition?" at http://shadowedforest.blogspot.com/2010/03/is-washington-building-pro-iran.html).
Finally, Iran seems to be getting access to at least some of the military equipment it needs to defend itself, though it evidently still does not have those elusive Russian ground-to-air missiles.
A policy focused on sanctions (i.e., lacking other balancing tactics such as sincere negotiations and efforts to take the interests of other countries into account) seems to me to be pretty shortsighted.
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Living under a toaliterian regiem for more than 3 decades I`m oppresed to read these kind of articles.I always say to myself: Oh, God! Does these guy realy know what he writes?
It seems anybody who hates America is justified in any action !! Like China who spread its empire over the body of its people. Or Iran !! Do`nt you realy shame of yourself?
Why you wise fella `s just do`nt come to Iran cooperate with your firends in Basiji Melishia killing our brave youth in the street to pull down American Evil Empire??? !!