A bipartisan group of 92 U.S. Senators signed a letter urging President Barack Obama to impose additional sanctions on the Iranian regime. “The time has come to impose crippling sanctions on Iran’s financial system by cutting off the CBI,” the senators wrote, referring to the Central Bank of Iran.
The Senators, led by Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Charles Schumer (D-NY), promised “strong bipartisan support in Congress for the imposition of sanctions,” support that largely comes out of paranoia about an Iranian nuclear program for which there is no evidence.
In May, the U.S. imposed sanctions on foreign companies doing business with Iran’s energy industry in ways Washington considers potentially “illicit” and on 16 non-U.S. companies and individuals for aiding weapons and missile programs in Iran. The new suggested sanctions would target Iran’s central bank in an attempt to freeze Iran out of the global financial system.
But the first round of sanctions, although significant, has not noticeably altered the Iranian approach. Various hawks in Washington have come out in support of the letter, despite recently recognizing that sanctions are not effective in changing policy.
Apparently hoping nobody is paying attention, supporters have called for these sanctions to be “crippling,” proudly referencing those imposed against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the 1990s. Not only did those sanctions have no favorable effect in Iraq’s policies, but they are also known to have directly contributed to the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children and up to one million Iraqis total.
Wow. Comical. It is so sadly naked now. I actually feel like I'm watching the updated American version of the German film on the end of the Nazi regime "Downfall." The same utter oblivion and seperation from reality. Tuchman's "March of Follies" has nothing in it that tops this sad comic opera we are watching.
I watched Hitler adressing a party rally on Utube the other night. I thought it was like Netanyahu adressing Congress with all the standing ovations.
The US congress and senate are pathetic lacky's for the self serving, and mendacious AIPAC. Our politicians do not represent what is best for America, as a matter of fact their actions are indicative of a loathing, and sheer disgust for the American people. With regards to Iran, they are not a threat, nor have they ever been. Our government needs a constant boogeyman in order to keep the fear canard from becoming irrelevant. These 92 politicians need to move to Israel, and build their own illegal settlement.
In exchange, Iran should cut their oil supply to the West. Sell it all to China and Russia instead and you'll see them all soiling their Joe Boxers.
Remember what happened when Roosevelt boxed Japan into a corner in the early 40's?
Iran isn't an already weakened Iraq, and her people are far more likely to rally behind the mullahs and generals and visit some pretty significant unpleasantness on us and/or our overseas interests.
I gotta agree with the previous posters- and this isn't going to end well AT ALL.
John Glaser says hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children and up to a million Iraqis died. The UN only estimated deaths after all Iraqi forces withdrew from Kuwait. Their estimate was one and a half million Iraqi civilians including half a million children under 5. Is there an attempt to reduce the death toll to the maximum estimate by Yad Vashem Research (the holocaust museum in Jerusalem) for Auschwitz? It was a worse crime than that.
donthomson1@hotmail.com
Just doing what their AIPAC masters want them to do.
These people are akin to Nazis. Look at Iraq — 500,000 children was a reasonable price to pay for the war pigs to get their way. How many Iranian children are they willing to kill?
I admire the Iraqis and the Afghans. They absorbed huge amounts of punishment in order to slow these monsters down. The world owes them a debt of gratitude.
Hey, lets start a war in Iran to distract the US citizens from our incredibly bad policies at home!!!!!!!