Saturday, March 23, 2019

The Truth Behind Sanctions

“Sanctions are one of America’s most powerful tools for pressuring rogue nations. Mr. Mnuchin has taken great pride in bolstering Treasury’s sanctions capacity and often says that he spends half of his time working on sanctions matters.” Really? “Rogue nations” turn out to be any nation that doesn’t kowtow to US demands. The rest of the world actually thinks we are the rogue nation undercutting treaties and agreements we have entered into, as well disregarding UN Security Council Resolutions we don’t agree with, regarding climate change, Iran, the Palestinian issues, the Golan Heights, the Cuban blockade. invading Iraq, etc. All with the excuse of nonexistent threats to “national security” — as if there is any real threat to the security of the world’s greatest military power from small countries just trying to get by and protect themselves from our lust for power and control.
“It would be a mistake to interpret the policy as being one of a step by step approach, where we release some sanctions in return for piecemeal steps toward denuclearization” said the administration official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity. “That is not a winning formula and it is not the president’s strategy.” Actually, step by step is the only winning policy as North Korea is not dumb enough to accede to all our demands before we agree to give them anything in return. Our policies are designed to fail so we can have enemies to justify our bloated military budget.
NYTIMES.COM
“President Trump likes Chairman Kim, and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary.

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