I don't expect the new sanctions to accomplish anything good. Even if Iranians were not a proud people and Ahmadinejad not a raving fanatic, still sanctions would be a poor strategy.
Economic sanctions have become a bulwark of United States foreign policy. Some estimate that about 200 nations - and almost half the population of the world - are currently under economic sanction by the USA.
Do economic sanctions work? In other words, do they achieve the stated objectives? That is hard to quantify. Even when the stated objectives take place and economic sanctions are already in place, it does not mean that the two events are causally connected. But the concurrence of these two events is rare. It has happened in only 20-25% of the cases.
What we do know about sanctions is that they tend to hurt not only the ordinary people of the targeted nation but also the ordinary people of the sanctioning nation. About the only people that sanctions rarely inconvenience are the politicians in both nations. Both sets of politicians generally make quick and easy capital out of sanctions.
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Immoral perhaps. Whether such things work or not, has a lot to do with ones aims and objectives.
I like to call a spade a spade. Putting rhetoric aside, siege has been a tactic of war from time immemorial.
The PNAC documents crafted by founding members of the C.F.R. have laid out the Anglo-American strategy for global hegemony quite clearly.
I agree with the analysis of who suffers. At least, while public opinion is being measured and prepared for launching the next phase of the operation. Then, things seem to get a bit more complicated.
regards
Andrew
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