Punishing Iran, Endlessly

[marmar]

from Consortium News:


Punishing Iran, Endlessly
August 5, 2012

With U.S. politics locked in a competitive “tough-guy-ism” – as Republicans and Democrats up the ante on punishing Iran to avoid being deemed “weak” or insufficiently “pro-Israel” – no one seems to notice that the tactics are fast becoming an end in themselves, observes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.

By Paul R. Pillar


Here we go with another round of Americans on different parts of the political spectrum trying to outdo each other in pushing for more pressure and punishment on Iran. As usual, all this pushing is almost totally devoid of any attention to exactly how the pressure and punishment are supposed to accomplish anything useful or to why they haven’t accomplished more than they have so far.

In coverage of the most recent legislative intensification of the pressure— on which the White House cooperated with Republicans and Democrats in Congress — one searches in vain for any sign of understanding of the basic principle that sanctions can only be one-half of any attempt to influence another government and that as long as Western negotiators fail to couple Iranian concessions with any significant relief from sanctions, the Iranians lack incentive to make concessions no matter how much pressure they feel.

And don’t even bother searching for signs of attention to why the contingency that supposedly is driving all this — a still nonexistent Iranian nuclear weapon — should be such an obsession, beyond repeated chants of the mantra that, to use the words of one presidential candidate, it would be “the greatest threat to the world.”

Pressure on Iran has long ago passed the point of becoming a seemingly mindless, endless exercise in pressure for pressure’s sake. In the absence of any attention to the role of Western negotiating rigidity or flexibility, we have the spectacle of people calling for more of something that they themselves acknowledge isn’t working. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/08/05/punishing-iran-endlessly/

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[leveymg]

2. It's the same strategy pursued against Iraq before the invasion. Degrade, wear-down, provoke

some sort of overreaction; or if there is no real pretext for war, make shit up about nukes and WMDs.

[woo me with science]

3. Poke, poke, poke...

HiPointDem posted this excerpt: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1062459

...a tantalizing passage in Wesley Clark’s new memoir suggests that another war is part of a long-planned Department of Defense strategy that anticipated “regime change” by force in no fewer than seven Mideast states. Critics of the war have often voiced suspicions of such imperial schemes, but this is the first time that a high-ranking former military officer has claimed to know that such plans existed...

In “A Time to Lead: For Duty, Honor and Country,” published by Palgrave Macmillan last month, the former four-star general recalls two visits to the Pentagon following the terrorist attacks of September 2001. On the first visit, less than two weeks after Sept. 11, he writes, a “senior general” told him, “We’re going to attack Iraq. The decision has basically been made.”

Six weeks later, Clark returned to Washington to see the same general and inquired whether the plan to strike Iraq was still under consideration. The general’s response was stunning:

“‘Oh, it’s worse than that,’ he said, holding up a memo on his desk. ‘Here’s the paper from the Office of the Secretary of Defense outlining the strategy. We’re going to take out seven countries in five years.’ And he named them, starting with Iraq and Syria and ending with Iran.”

http://www.salon.com/2007/10/12/wesley_clark/

Poke, poke, poke, poke...


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http://www.democraticunderground.com/101460131

Dennis Kucinich: US 'sanction warfare' makes real Iran war inevitable
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101730434

Plans to strike Iran "ready", says U.S. Israel envoy May 2012
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002695900

The demonization of Iran
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002319475

"Each star marks a US millitary base, but just so we're all clear: Iran is threatening us"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2456137

[Dustlawyer]

4. Yeah, regime change worked so well the last time we changed the ruling party in Iran!

In the early 1950's, Great Britain and our CIA, at the behest of BP, had Iran's elected Prime Minister ousted (hanged after show trial) Parliment was dissolved, and we put "The Shaw of Iran" in power. We overthrew their Democracy and put in a dictator because they threatened to Nationalize their own oil fields. This is why they later took our embassy during their Revolution. Our media have never explained this to us. Check it out, thie CIA brags that this was their 1st regime change!

[truth2power]

7. Mossaddegh died while under house arrest in 1967. The rest is true, though. Sadly, countries

don't even have a right to their own oil.

[sad sally]

5. Sanctions are proven over and over again to be "feel good" substitutes for real policy engagements

Seems memories are short or non-existent to recall the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children who died because of tough sanctions against that country - and what did it achieve? An illegal, unnecessary and destructive war, more dead and homeless families, thousands upon thousands of physically and mentally wounded soldiers - billions wasted on death and destruction.

The White House recently said the sanctions are "exacting a toll on the Iranian regime and the Iranian government." But Carney acknowledged that the sanctions have not yet had their desired effect. (Yitzhak Benhorin, Washington). I guess when there are hundreds of thousands of dead Iranian children, starvation and "selective" drone war attacks, than success can be declared.

[polly7]

6. Very interesting article.

Dumb/ness seems to be a popular term to describe relations with Iran. I like to post this video every once in a while, it just shows how they've been screwing it all up for decades.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10178169