On Tuesday, the US Treasury Department announced new sanctions against several companies in both Iran and Russia, accusing them of having played a role in shipping oil to Syria. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared them an exploit of the “international financial system.”
It’s not clear if this is meant as a sanction against Iran or a sanction against Syria, and the Treasury Department’s statement offered some conflicting narratives on it, on the one hand accusing the deals of helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stay in power, but also claiming it was providing money for Iran to “fund terrorist activity.”
With the Syrian war having left that nation’s oil and gas industry badly damaged, they are forced to seek imports from abroad. The US is opposed to this, and also opposed to the idea of Iran selling oil, though whether they can stop anyone is another matter.
Russian officials were quick to denounce the sanctions, saying the US is acting illegally and making laws outside of their jurisdiction. The sanctions prevent Americans doing business with these companies, or them holding any assets in the US. Since the US is already sanctioning Iran and Russia, this probably won’t mean much in real terms.
So, Hillary & Obama àfter killing Gadaffi, ship their Muslim mercenary to Turkey where they seep across the border and join forces with NED anti Assad “protesters”… soon there are pitched kinetic confrontations with the powers that be in Syria, and the beginnings of a coup d’eat getting off the first base. At this point no one was betting on Assad except his Alawit & Shea. There is open warfare between loyal and various rebel outfits such as the free Syrian Army. Then comes Russia and Hesbollah sup-ported by Iran. Russia brings in air power and Hesbollah does the groundwerk and suddenly Assad starts to reverse his losses, and the rebels start losing sponsors. Now, Assad is on a roll and he is kicking as with his enemies all packed into the NW part of the country along the Turk border, in many cases cheek and jowell with their former & current enemies. Now tell me, does this really look like a winning hand for the U.S. or Trump… Trump was supposed to be the guy to end the crazy wars which waste double digit billions and add up to trillions…..????
And the question is how does this madness profit America….????????
The answer is these wars sap our resources, ruin our reputation and waste any lose funds to keep America competitive in this new reality of utter madness & worse…
Trump did stop or cut back financial support of the none existent moderate head choppers aligned more with ISIS than the Syrian army . It would be better for the United to come home than to always support the wrong side in every conflict .
He said he did, tho as you say, after Russia intervened, there weren’t any rebels left to give money to. He sent in US troops instead, and significantly increased air attacks. Who knows what kind of dark money is still being spent there, or, really what the US is doing as trump has stated that his strategy and deployments everywhere are “secret”.
It’s fun to blame every horrible incident on Clinton and Obama eh ? Try this, refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine flooded mid eastern nations, causing unrest (everywhere really), the arab spring, and civil wars across the region. The Obama administration then mistakenly intervened into several of those civil wars. Naturally, if Obama had not intervened, the GOP types would have blamed Obama for the civil war carnage anyway. The day Obama left to drink craft beer and windsurf, those interventions no longer are his responsibility.
Short form:
The CIA’s project on behalf of Israel — the Oded Yinon plan — to destroy Syria, began in 2006 under George Bush, and continued through the Obama presidency, shepherded by Secretary of State HRC, until it emerged as a full-fledged criminal regime-change Sunni terror war in 2011.
Responsibility for this criminal slaughter falls entirely on Israel, the US/CIA — Bush, Cheney, Obama, & HRC — Turkey, KSA, and Qatar.
True, the Syria project began in earnest when US militancy propaganda maintained that Iraqs “wmds” were transported to Syria ( right under the noses of US air supremacy) and therefore were next on PNACs list. Funny how wmds, like al Qaeda, always show up under US missiles, tho, we weren’t able to prevent them boarding planes en masse on 9/11 in the US. One of the aspects US militancy likes us to ignore, concerning the arab civil wars, is that the arab spring was not a US program, but a genuine rebellion against failed, repressive regimes. It does not serve militancy well to acknowledge that the societies we destroy might contain people which have the same Hope’s and goals as found in Akron Ohio. Better to use these people as pawns in partisan blame games.
The evil dictators the Arab spring overthrew was replaced by even more evil head chopping terrorists that intend to rule the world . that
“The day Obama left to drink craft beer and windsurf, those interventions no longer are his responsibility.”
You forgot the part where he stuffed his account with Wall Street goodies for a job well done.
What goodies were those, exactly ?
Now you’re being like Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow and pretending you’re dumb and don’t understand.
Obama, and mostly the Congress were very nice to wall st. Yes, Obama has made a pile in speaking engagements, he also has an impressive donation record, like the 2 million dollar youth employment endowment in Chicago. He pays taxes, it’s legal, what is your point ? Is he supposed to say no on principle then go rake a forest ?
Well, $400,000 for a September 2017 speech to a Cantor Fitzgerald investor conference comes to mind.
According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, Obama’s net worth increased from $12.2 million when he left the presidency to $40 million three months later.
Is all of that increase in the form of “corporate goodies” — big payments for little or no work just to pay back favors or take advantage of his presumed access to important ears, etc.? No. He has a big book deal with Penguin. He and Michelle have a big production deal with Netflix.
But yeah, he’s probably cashing in. Most former presidents do these days.
So by “most former presidents”, do you mean all but Carter?
Truman didn’t. JFK didn’t live to.
I can only remember back to Carter. Don’t know if Ford did.
Truman and honest presidents did not cash in .
you are right . now Trump is responsible for those same mistakes that Obama Bush and Clinton made
Of course. Since the American fascist regime illegally occupies the northern part of Syria where it’s oil wealth is located.
Too bad (Not) the butthurt landlocked US occupation and it’s cutthroat proxies can’t do anything but sitting on it, for now. How long depends on the armed resistance within and tens of thousands of shia militias and Hezbollah under General Soleimani’s command on the outside.
More fodder for Wall Street drops.
Charter of the United Nations
Article 1
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
3. To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4. To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
Article 2
The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.
1. The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members. All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
2. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
3. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations. . . .here
I don’t really know what sanctions are . But other countries all seem to really suffer from these sanctions . I remember it was claimed a 1/2 million Iraqi children died and Madeline Albright said she thought it was worth it . We are sanctioning many countries . And it seems to hurt all their economies very much . Venzuwala , Russia , North Korea , Cuba . Why don’t we stop doing this and instead try to help poor countries . I always thought the United States wanted to help other people .
Also sanctions work two ways, not just one — buyers and sellers. So the sanctions on Iran, for example, were also on Europe . Keeping Iran down is also keeping European corporations, US competitors, from making money in Iran. So EU economic growth is low.
The US doesn’t want to help anybody. It primarily wants to retain the world hegemon status it gained after WWII, no matter who is hurt.
Actually, Don, sanctions never work. Take Russia, for example .. that country grew its own crops and traded with China and other BRICS countries. Russia just laughs at the dumb US and pulls farther ahead in weapons technology and military hardware, and trades with the EU as well. Its oil and gas go to China, the EU and other countries.
With regard to Iran, however, sanctions hurt only its population, not the current gov’t .. In fact, the gov’t has gotten stronger. Iran does trade with Russia, China, and other countries as well; thus, US sanctions are ineffective in the Islamic Republic as well. It’s what we know as “cutting one’s nose to spite its face”, and that’s just what the US is doing; it’s just isolating itself from the rest of the world, which is idiotic in today’s world.
Exactly.
When the US sanctions a country, it doesn’t hurt that country’s government — it hurts that country’s people. AND it makes the US a plausible culprit for all that country’s problems, even the ones not necessarily caused by the sanctions.
In addition to being evil, sanctions are just dumb.
If the US really wants Iran’s government overthrown, it should simply announce that all sanctions are lifted and that Iranians are invited to engage in completely free travel and trade with the US … if their government will let them. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t last six months.
Sanctions are a nice word for “blockade”. Where the US has naval assets, they impede, search and seize shipping at large. (see piracy). On land, where seizure is not possible, US banking systems impose fines ( see armed robbery) on persons or entities which attempt to trade against US wishes. Simplified, but those are the basics.
“I always thought the United States wanted to help other people.”
You were intentionally misled. It was a lie.
” Divinity of hell! When devils will the blackest sins put on,
they do suggest at first with heavenly shows…”
These sanctions will come back to haunt them when the dollar dies and the US economy collapses. Such a large country will beg for foreign aid but millions around the world are going to want to refuse it. It’s all very short-sighted.