Sanctions on Iran will fail
Hillary Clinton telling Iran that the US is looking for sanctions that bite is like telling them they’re going to be grounded and cannot go outside.
Sanctions don’t work as far as political threats are concerned in the Middle East – at best they are “hit or miss.” And as reported in Daniel Ammann’s new book, The King of Oil, Israel got 60-90% of its oil from Iran at a time that they weren’t officially recognized because it was in everyone’s interest to be business partners although publicly they had to “not save face” and remain bitter enemies.
So all this jawboning about Iran does nothing but keep the War Machine moving forward. More importantly, it keep donors’ wallets open for the Dems who may need all the help and support they can get in November.
Officially, the US wants to stop Iran from developing a uranium enrichment program. Iran is the second largest producer of crude oil in OPEC. They can go buy a nuclear weapon or dozens of them. Pragmatically, I don’t think there’s much the US can do but fight this in the headlines.
Iran needs to keep the oil flowing and they will…to China and India or anyone else who needs it. After crude oil, Iran’s largest exports are, ready for this, Persian carpets, pistachios, and saffron and its main trading partners are Japan and Germany.
Secretary Clinton was quoted in the NYT article as saying “parts of Iran’s government are ”a menace” to the Iranian people and the Middle East.” If I didn’t know any better, that sounds a lot like the United States…parts of our government are a menace to me and you, especially the FRB and the CFTC. We have a lot in common with the Persians from that standpoint.
“Clinton said that if Iran developed a nuclear weapon, it would embolden terrorists and spark an arms race that would destabilize the Middle East.” It might be me, but I think poking a stick in their eye emboldens them more than anything else. My guess is that they have them already, not officially speaking.
Politicians will get behind this because they are elected by their donors, not their constituents, but in the end, Iran will stare down the US and win.
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