TEHRAN — At a time when U.S. officials are increasingly confident that economic and political pressure alone may succeed in curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the mood here has turned bleak and belligerent as Iranians prepare grimly for a period of prolonged hardship and, they fear, war.Read the rest here.
This stark contrast has been evident in the Iranian capital this week as a top military commander declared a “critical point” in the country’s long feud with the West and ordinary Iranians stocked up on essential supplies. Merchants watched helplessly as the Iranian currency, the rial, shed more than a third of its value, triggering huge increases in the prices of imported goods.
“I will tell you what this is leading to: war,” said a merchant in Tehran’s popular Paytakht bazaar who gave his name only as Milad. “My family, friends and I — we are all desperate.”
The sense of impending confrontation is not shared in Washington and other Western capitals, where government officials and analysts expressed cautious satisfaction that their policies are working.
Former and current U.S. government officials did not dismiss the possibility of a military confrontation but said they saw recent threats by Iranian leaders — including warning a U.S. aircraft carrier this week not to return to the crucial Strait of Hormuz — mainly as signs of rising frustration. U.S. officials say this amounts to vindication of a years-long policy of increasing pressure, including through clandestine operations, on Iran’s clerical rulers without provoking war.
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Sanctions are an act of war and end up hurting the innocent civilians more than the oligarchs and people in power.
ReplyDeleteRubbish. Sanctions are not and never have been an act of war. To suggest they are is to abdicate sovereignty. Nations have the right to decide who they will and will not do business with. No country has a moral duty to aid other states economically if they are engaging in obviously immoral or evil actions.
ReplyDeleteAs for the question of who they hurt more you may have a point there. But in the end it is certainly far more moral than bombing someone.
I disagree John. Sanctions are indeed a precursor to war and historically have always preceded wars. Blocking goods and services from entering a country in order to hurt the nation ends up hurting the innocent more then those in power and many times either leads to civil war or hostilities between countries.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIO-4v8qpYc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Btw, have you picked up on the deployment being planned to send American troops to Israel? The war drums are begging to beat very loudly, and The people is Syria and Iran are in the crosshairs. With Russia in the region as well, this foolish militarism is inching us closer and closer to WW3.
Lord, have mercy on us.
In a vacuum, John is correct. However, I agree with Anon that in this current reality these sanctions are indeed acts of war. Great pressure is put on any allies who think of dissenting from these measures. The sanctioned party is antagonized into some act of belligerance that can then be portrayed as an unprovoked assault, resulting in a pretext for war.
ReplyDeleteNations have the right to decide who they will and will not do business with.
ReplyDelete"Nations," i.e., governments, don't do business; private citizens do.