by Dan Burns

Apr 12, 2021, 7:30 AM

Yes, lift the sanctions. All of them.

From last week.

Mr. Malley called the Iranian position that Trump’s financial and economic blockade is illegal and must be lifted before Iran would begin taking compliance steps “not serious.” He said, “it’s not going to work that way.”

Araghchi fired back, “Mr. Malley’s remarks show the lack of seriousness on the part of the other side, because they were the ones who left the JCPOA and imposed sanctions on Iran. Even now, it is obvious that they must lift all these sanctions in one step, and this is a completely logical request from the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

I have to say that Araghchi seems to me to have a point. You can’t sign a treaty with a country, but then decline to lift sanctions as you promised to, then tear the treaty up and go full bore with an economic blockade, and then say the other country isn’t serious.
(Informed Comment)

This is just part of it. The whole of it is that it’s long past time that the U.S. (and anyone else) quit doing punitive sanctions, anywhere. They don’t work. As a matter of fact, they’re counterproductive. And have you ever noticed how people doing violence in “sanctioned” countries have no trouble getting their hands on U.S.-made weaponry?

That’s basic reality, and why does all of this sanctions crap keep going on in the face of it? Because it makes the neocons feel like some real tough guys and gals, that’s why.

In general, power, political and otherwise, messes people up. Not everyone, perhaps not the majority, but many. From what I’ve seen, it happens to the extent that they’re people with pretty limited intellectual attainments and ethical development to start with. And some do seem to have a need to do all they can to destroy other people’s lives, even if they’re too stupid and delusional to realize that’s what they’re doing.