Written by Darius Shahtahmasebi; Originally appeared at TheAntiMedia.org
Last Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed new sanctions into law against Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The legislation was supported so overwhelmingly in Congress that President Trump’s ability to veto the legislation was rendered completely ineffective.
Even anti-interventionist Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard voted in favor of the bill, once again proving that Republicans and Democrats always find common ground when it comes to beating the drums of war against sovereign nations who have taken very little unwarranted hostile action — if any — towards the United States.
But these are just sanctions, not acts of war, right? There’s nothing wrong with economically bullying other countries into submission over non-compliance with the current global order, right?
Not quite.
Sanctions are always a prelude to war. Though few are aware, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 was arguably in response to America’s attempt to cripple Japan’s booming economy through embargos and asset freezes, ending Japan’s commercial relationship with the United States and provoking the desperation that led to their attack.
In August 1990, the U.S. began a sanctions regime against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In 1991, the United States invaded Iraq and completely decimated its armed forces, also directly targeting its civilian infrastructure. Following this devastation, the U.S. extended and expanded these economic sanctions on Iraq as further punishment. The U.N. estimated these sanctions led to the deaths of 1.7 million Iraqi civilians, including between 500,000 and 600,000 children.
When Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was questioned on these statistics, she intimated that the price was “worth it.”
These sanctions only came to an end after the U.S. invaded again in 2003 (and the complete international sanctions regime was only lifted in December 2010).
Libya also faced American-imposed sanctions beginning in the 1990s, as well, and we all know how that story ended.
In May of 2004, the U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Syria, supposedly over Syria’s support for terrorism and its “failure to stop militants entering Iraq” – a country the U.S. destabilized in the first place. In reality, these sanctions were a response to Syria and Iran’s growing relationship as the two countries had reportedly agreed to a mutual defense treaty that same year.
Syria has been the target of a regime change operation since as far back as 2006, and the U.S. has been openly bombing its territory under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump; the U.S. has already bombed the Syrian government multiple times over the past year. If it had not been for the Russian intervention, the U.S. most likely would have ousted the Syrian government by force before Trump even took office.
Iran has been battling with sanctions for some time now, with the anti-Iranian sanctions regime serving as a smokescreen for regime change in the same manner that Libya, Syria, and Iraq were targeted previously.
In the case of Iran, the underlying motives are quite clear: the renewed set of sanctions is designed to undermine the 2015 nuclear agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Even though the Trump administration is aware that Iran is in full compliance with the JCPOA, Trump has made it an official policy of his own to deliberately erode the deal.
Why would he do that?
As explained in the book Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran, authored by an ex CIA analyst who promoted the 2003 invasion of Iraq:
“For those who favor regime change or a military attack on Iran (either by the United States or Israel), there is a strong argument to be made for trying this option first. Inciting regime change in Iran would be greatly assisted by convincing the Iranian people that their government is so ideologically blinkered that it refuses to do what is best for the people and instead clings to a policy that could only bring ruin on the country. The ideal scenario in this case would be that the United States and the international community present a package of positive inducements so enticing that the Iranian citizenry would support the deal, only to have the regime reject it. In a similar vein, any military operation against Iran will likely be very unpopular around the world and require the proper international context – both to ensure the logistical support the operation would require and to minimize the blowback from it. The best way to minimize international opprobrium and maximize support (however grudging or covert) is to strike only when there is a widespread conviction that the Iranians were given but then rejected a superb offer – one so good that only a regime determined to acquire nuclear weapons and acquire them for the wrong reasons would turn it down.” [emphasis added]
This paradigm brilliantly explains why hawkish members of Trump’s team are completely opposed to Trump unilaterally derailing the JCPOA: These officials don’t want the blame to rest on the U.S., as it will ignite new tensions within the international community and directly affect the U.S. dollar.
That being said, if the U.S. government continues to undermine Iran with sanctions that target the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – a very powerful entity within Iran – the U.S. may end up forcing Iran to walk away from the deal, anyway. In that scenario, the U.S. will have the outcome that they long have desired.
North Korea has been on the receiving end of a U.S.-led sanctions regime for years, as well, and the American military is now flying bombers over its airspace, provoking the country to respond in kind.
The only question now becomes: who will Trump set America on a warpath with first: Iran or North Korea?
Trump is reportedly setting the stage for a confrontation with Iran as early as October, having found a new strategy to demonize Iran should the sanctions regime fail to bring about the war he desires before he is due to certify Iran’s compliance for the following 90-day period. This strategy involves Trump tasking his team with setting up spot-inspections at Iranian facilities in the hopes of finding ways that Iran is not complying with the JCPOA.
In the meantime, America continues its unilateral policy of bullying non-compliant states, further isolating itself from its traditional post-WWII allies. For example, Germany does view sanctions that target Russia favorably, as these sanctions hurt Germany’s own economic interests.
Not to mention that American-led sanctions push these defiant countries into the open arms of one another. Iran and Russia just signed a $2.5 billion deal last Monday, going about business as usual and giving Donald Trump the political middle finger in the process.
If the U.S. continues to use its global stranglehold over the financial markets as a tool to weaken other countries, these countries will also have no choice but to ditch the dollar and to seek alternative currencies through which to complete transactions. Not surprisingly, Russia has just responded on Monday by announcing it will seek to end its reliance on the U.S. dollar.
Make no mistake: the U.S. is at the crossroads of its dying status as a global superpower. In order to stay afloat, it has only one real option – to continue down the warpath it has set itself on and confront those countries that seek to rise up in the post-American led international order.
The newly signed sanctions regime is just the beginning, and there will be a difficult road ahead. Cooler heads may ultimately prevail, given the way these sanctions are already being seen to backfire.
It will be almost impossible to sell these wars to the American public and the international community at this stage considering the evidence shows the U.S. is acting rashly and out of order with the rest of the world. However, if the U.S. can provoke Iran or North Korea into doing something regrettable first, the U.S. may finally reward itself with the justification to go to war which it so desperately needs.
And when that happens, all bets will be off the table.
I still not undersand why countries are makinf deals with USA. USA always break contracts when they want.
Why did Iran make a deal with USA concerning nuclear weapons ? Each country has the right to do whatever he wants.
Iran didn’t make a deal with the US, it made a deal with the P5+1, the US was just one member of that group. Technically the deal can still go on even without US participation.
Give USA want she wants. USA wants war, Give USA war and show that USA is responsible for the consequences.
You would be more credible by first applying yourself that you are preaching. Go to Syria or Irak first , joining the PMU, and do it ! With the last US bombing against them in support of ISIS, they will support you.
The sooner the US is utterly ruined and critically weakened the better for the entire human race. The US is the greatest threat to mankind the world has ever faced in its entire history.
Hopefully the next crash will be really damaging. The USA needs to stop.
Totally agree! I hope it annihilates the US and the country descends into civil war and destroys itself.
Nigel… ponder this: Who will suffer in that civil war? Ordinary people like me and you. I’m Russian but I know first hand that on the individual level american people are just like us. Very open, friendly and generous. My two mentors that allowed me to become race enginear/designer – one is American and another is Canadian. Simple people that work with their hands and heads as well. Hard workers and very busy but found time to pass their knowledge and experience. Ponder this: We humans are one kind – human being. Any kind of dividing, war mongering (and civil is the worst kind of war – when brather kills brother, here in Russia we learned what it means).
Ponder this: War, killing, blood is gp’s food = fear, anger and grief that people feel. On energetic level it’s that simple. Remebering this will allow to very easily distingwish between what is pro and what is anit-human. For example – Russia is conducting war in Syria. This is a surgery case (metaphorically saying) – this actions are intended to bring a large country, home of miilions of Syrians in a state of peace. Russiass AF and very small force on the ground are kind of famous in this war but many missed the demining (huge amounts of explosives left after ISIS and all other headchoppers), the amount of humanitarian aid that goes into liberated Syrian regions. Many miss the amount of armed groups and fractions that agreed to lay down weapons with negotiating help of Russian mil. diplomats. Remember UN aid convoys to Aleppo when heart eating “feedom fighers” where still there (shelling civilians in the rest of the city each and every day). I had a feeling they where there to be bombed by RAF :) and carry supplies to jihadists. Do they (UN) think that we don’t understand who takes control of all incoming aid in a city controlled by armed jihadist force? Ordinary people kept starving there. Where’s UN when Aleppo is liberated but largely damaged and civil infrastructure is ruined?
I agree that humans need US to stop bullying the rest of the world. Problem is that gp’s plan is not about US or any other country. There will be no countries, no nations, no culture etc. It will be a global chipped concentration camp. That’s the aim of globalisation as we see it for last couple thousand years.
Also I heard same people saying – Biblical project started there and will end there (Syria/ME)…
Sorry for my broken English
well spoken.
Sustained! Fair comment!
Thanks Nigel.
Good arguments always win! So, you’re welcome!
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Americans have been trying to get a pacifist into power for the last few decades – Gore, Kerry, Obama (who they thought was a pacifist and voted for in droves) and Sanders. Unfortunately the war profiteering oligarchy in the U.S. rolled out black box voting systems right around the time Bush Jr. first became president, and prevents the majority of Americans from influencing foreign policy. We have no say in the matter and the corporate media in the U.S. and U.K., also owned by Wall Street and war profiteers, keeps people too blind and distracted to see that their whole election process is rigged by the manufacturers. Once in a while you’ll see an article about how hackable the voting machines are, but everyone’s missing the biggest flaw – as long as the voting software is kept proprietary, the manufacturer can put any weighting/flipping algorithm they want in there and no one can know.
The real problem is the pacifist you mentioned all became part of globalist agenda. There has not been any morally superior politicians that could stand against the influences of globalist. The only man that may have had a clear head in this game was Ron Paul because he was a hard core constitutionalist. But that pushed him into a corner where most Americans wouldn’t want to be. Hence we are still only allowed to choose between war hawks and pseudo war hawks. These people are smart and have subverted the opposition to be not much of a real opposition any more. Hence demo”rats”/Republi”cons”, the one true party. Bipartisanism is a joke in the age.
I am afraid that no American president or candidate for the presidency other than Ralph Nadar and Jill Stein can in any way be considered a pacifist. The Nobel Peace prize winner, Barack Obama, refused to condemn the previous administration for its war against Iraq or for its government supported torture program. He said that we have to look forward and not backward. He supported the coup in Honduras. He caved to Hillary Clinton and joined the attack against Libya, leaving in its wake a failed state and a base for ISIS. He poured billions of dollars into upgrading the US nuclear program. Even Bernie Sanders who I had supported in the Democratic primaries, is not a pacifist. He did not oppose military spending or Israel’s horrible assault on Gaza. In fact, Bernie rarely spoke about foreign policy. There has not been one major candidate in either of the two major parties that did not want America to rule the world and who was not in bed with the military/industrial complex. War is the game of the US and the US government and the military/industrial complex believes that they need war after war to survive.
I stand corrected. You’re right. And the unelected power players in the U.S. have always co-opted or assassinated anyone with real leadership ability who stands up to the military-industrial complex. Another reason Americans have little say in what their tax dollars are spent on. In order to really make a difference and overturn their evil oligarchy, Americans would have to be willing to strike en masse and be killed by their own military just like the Danes did to throw off their oligarchy.
The voters should request a paper ballot when those machines are present and hold protests until these machines are removed from the voting system.
That is my wish as well. It would be cathartic for the US to suffer as their Regime Change victims have. Tear the US apart as has been done to Syria and the Americans would have a lot of rebuilding to do for a few decades :)
sadly, Israel will continue with or without US
Israel is a leech/virus that requires its US host to survive, once the host goes so does the parasite.
yes but when US goes Israel will just go to it’s next victim (Europe)
as an american i wholeheartedly agree.
you are immigrant in usa
Nope, was born here
if the US gays had enough balls and military power, they would have started war with Iran much earlier…. Iran is not to be compared with Iraq 25 years ago…. and the aircraft carriers are just big sitting ducks in a shallow lake, named persian gulf… if you cant cope with Afghanistan or other barefeet countries, how will you dare to start war with a well equipped country like Iran? stop dreaming, sofa warriors!
Sanctions in the old world might have worked but they are no longer hurting the nations that they are imposed! In fact the people who are affected are the EU! That does not of course mean we will not have further conflicts but the United States is coming back to the pack!
The war against USA is inevitable. You have two countries. One wants war. So, one day, there will be war. So, the sooner, the better. USA is empowering with time.
Do you really have the feeling that the USA are empowering? The Dollar shackles, California is about to poll a Calexit, France and Germany loosen their tight connection to US, the EU lost already its first member, Nato could loose Turkey, the BRICS begin to gain freedom of the dollar, etc…. I think Putin is right. Just sit it out as strong as possible, but as weak as necessary.
Of course, USA is empowering over time. They take more and more countries. They took Ukraine. After, they will atke North Korea. Now, they want Syria and after Iran. They made better and better weapons.
It’s time to give what USA wants before it’s too late.
I have warned you. Don’t cry when it will be too late.
Or the US-system is in it’s last gasp and dissipates in its conquers, like Afghan, Iraq, Lybia. If there is a good chance that it’ll implode, you should take this chance. WIII isnt better vs the current US or an empowered US – same outcome.
It will explode if you do the right things. Otherwise, it will not explode and will empower. If USA attacks you, you must respond and blame USA.
Am I the only one who has a feeling that Serious is kind of war promoter here?
Look at your logic “The war against USA is inevitable. You have two countries. One wants war. So, one day, there will be war. So, the sooner, the better. USA is empowering with time.”
So one entity wants war (but doesn’t start it yet). According to above 2nd entity should start war (because 1st entity wants war)…isn’t it (war) what you claimed 1st entity wanted?
USA is just a barking dog!..US troops have been defeated in Irak after US invasion…thats why they dont have troops in Irak…only advicer and special forces!…in Afganistan they have the same fate…Taliban rule more than 50% of the country!.
US troops have been defeated in Irak after US invasion
this is new chapter of harry potter series?
No!.. the new chapter of Neocons series!..last chapters were ” How to lose 4.700 soldiers death and 70.000 wounded in Irak for nothing”…” To live and die in Kabul since 2001″….
The US lost and extricated itself as it always does in losing wars , nothing new or fictional about it.
Let us hope that sane minds prevail and if not, before I die I hope to see the US engulfed on flames together with Israel. The zionists will then see what a REAL holocaust is like :) and not a fairy tale.
Bring you fucking little pussy go hid in your mom’s basement
My dear Rob, your profane language so well displays your education , or indeed lack of it. ‘Hide ‘ by the way is spelt with an ‘e’ , not ‘hid’ which is rather solecistic. For example ” you hid under the rock to hide from your mediocrity “.
I hope this helps you to progress from colouring books.
And it’s spelled not spelt idiot
https://www.englishforums.com/English/SpelledOrSpelt/kzmjz/post.htm
Read and learn fool.
Seems he got the message?
America thinks it can fight a war that includes nations like Russia and China – and their homeland won’t feel the bombs falling? They are wrong – and way overdue.
US at war with Russia is not going to happen, so Iran is included in that, it’s too close to West Europe and their not going to wear it except as propoganda value to keep the confusion out there, the real war will be with China or no war at all due to Global interdependence, that’s why Russia and China didn’t veto new sanctions against the DPRK. I don’t think these sanctions will be implemented by Russia or China but the US will not be able to make a lot of noise because they will then be adopting an aggressive stance that South Korea and it’s jew contemporaries can’t accept, like Western Europe they don’t want the war over there, US is heavily compromised, basically because if you print bills and use them as payment for services rendered or imported raw materials and products the holders of those bills have leverage over the printer, not the other way around, so in the game of Capitalism the US has to keep meeting it’s obligations until it can’t do so. Confucius said that but then went haywire with his ideas about harmony as a deviation from war.
Russia can enter east and south Ukraine. USA will do nothing about that. What can they do ?? Nothing. And they are already putting sanctions on Russia.
Cheap war for Russia and no consequences. Just like Crimea. You enter East and south Ukraine and warn USA that the next time, it will be worst.
When USA wanted to take over Vietnam, China helped vietnamese and entered Vietnam. That’s how you make USA loose.
Ukraine and Syria are a cheap war for USA. USA has nothing to loose. If they have something to loose, they will retreat because they are bluffing and they don’t want to be attacked i,n their territories.
There are also others ways to attack the US empire. You just have to take the right decisions.
USA didn’t need cheap wars back then, Vietnam was prolonged as much as possible to feed the industrial military complex.
This is the big change today, the USA cannot afford to spent even more money into this complex, as it means destroying its society ever further. They reached their limit, with a cold civil war lingering inside the country.
But none of the others are ready for a hot war either, as such we will probably see a transition of power with many smaller struggles like Syria, in which the USA are trying to split up its opponents, but the sanction now went to far and were over the top, uniting its opponents more than good for the USA. But make no mistake, this unification of the emerging powers is not necessary stable.
That is exactly why the US is setting up eastern Europe as the physical theatre for any conflict with Russia – so the eastern European states carry the full physical cost of devastation – rather than the western European states that are the location of vested US interests and investments. The Ukraine is the example.
Irak, Syria, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia etc are all places where the us goes to dump the nuclear waste they dont know where to put. And they call iy, “depleted uranium” It would be laughable if it wasnt true.. How many thousands of tons of the shit have they shot into foreign soil? Think about it. Not only are they murdering all kinds of people around the world, theyre also making sure their offspring will be really fucked up.
May be this is an answer how exatly gp is planning to move its power center away from US. I mentioned a fiew times here that there are “rumors” between conceptual power experts that Trump was elected to reformat US and powercenter will be moved. Ponder this – Trump is going to start war (but that CIA sneakhead scenario to take the blame away from US is not present – Iran took and honors the deal) but this time there will be no support (or complience) from the rest of the world and thats it – US is not a power center anymore when all the rest is not supporting it. Local US elites are fighting desperately against it (they know that pie will become smaller and it is addictive to be a boss) but global elite (global predictor) is loughing – they work on different level than locals.
there were already several sanctions against Ru, Ch and NK. and no war. in case of Kim i can realise war, but it is usre, usa will not begin war with Ch or Ru.
The 20 plus people who, started the Project for the American Century by William Kristol and Robert Kagan 10 of whom later joined the Bush Administration, are the people responsible for this present WAR/WAR/WAR. 20 very rich and privileged American are pushing the billions towards war; Is this not madness?
No. It’s Zionism. Quit beating around the bush and blame those actually responsible.
Mostly Jews.
A quick glance at the comments section reveals that there are alot of idiots here….
Iran is to smart to walk away from the deal. Unilateral USA sanctions now have almost no effect on Iran because of the agreement.
possible ways of beginning of ww3
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/05/war-north-korea-options/524049/
This article is excellent – concise and contextual.
its all because of the zionists/khazarian mafia
Didnt anyone listen to ex NATO supreme commander and ex presidential hopeful Wesley clarke?….??? When I saw this video many years ago I wasnt surprised but happy that the truth was out and it wasnt some foil hat bufoon. This was a very high up and important man in the military and politics. https://youtu.be/9RC1Mepk_Sw War and overthrow of these governments was planned way ahead and to say 9/11 was allowed to happen to create the perfect pretext is 100% correct.
As an American who is emotionally devastated by my country’s aggressive foreign policy throughout most of its history I believe that the international community should long ago have put sanctions on us.
As an American I am saddened by what is happening. Many of us have been doing all we can to support peaceful relations with our human family but we get silenced, marginalized, laughed at and ignored. In the US we are under MASSIVE amounts of brainwashing from media, dishonest education system and many more manipulations here. Many people here and across the globe are not thinking straight. Please remember most humans don’t want this. Please remember on a personal level, if you were hungry I would give you food. If you needed clothes, I would give you clothes. If you were sad I would hug you and listen to you… Most people WOULD do the right thing with a clear mind. This planet is under attack by psychopaths and the world changes when we follow our hearts and our own moral compasses again. Please don’t blame entire nations. We are one human family.
Hey, I totally agree about the sad part because I was only born the older child and that’s zero and one!