Sanctions having no visible effect on Iran’s nuke program
The Washington Post reports this morning that Iran is defiant in the face of the economic sanctions which have been in place for years to influence them to discontinue their nuclear weapons programs;
The Iranian regime shows no sign of giving in. On Thursday, a powerful cleric taunted the U.S. administration, vowing that economic pressure could never force Iran to abandon its nuclear program.
“The Iranian nation is committed to resist arrogant powers, including the United States,” said Ali Saeedi, the Iranian supreme leader’s personal representative to the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Obama administration officials insist that the full effect of sanctions is not yet apparent, and they say Iran’s economic pain will deepen in the coming months. Still, U.S. and European officials and diplomats acknowledge that they are waiting for clear signs that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, is willing to change course.
Marine Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, said Iran has accelerated its nuclear program in the past year, despite the diplomatic and economic pressure. Iran continues “enriching uranium beyond any plausible peaceful purpose” and is probably using negotiations to stall for time, Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 5.
Yeah, there was a decade of sanctions imposed on Iraq to influence them to cooperate with UN weapons inspectors and that didn’t work. There have been sanctions on Iran since 1979, yet we’re told to believe that those sanctions will begin to work any day now.
Category: Politics
Maybe Congress should just pass a law against Iran having nuclear weapons. That should do it and the world can sleep more soundly each night.
Yeah, that should do it, AC.
They make their own ammo and ballistic weapons now. They just launched a new destroyer, the Jamaran 2, in the Caspian Sea. They have fleets of troop carrier helicopters and gunships on the pads at three different bases in the Isfahan area. You can see them on an aerial image. (I counted 360 gunships at one base.) They have plenty of oil to refine into fuel to support their military machine. They have nuke reactors and ammo dumps all over the place, and they don’t care about environmental pollution.
Yes, it’s plain that those sanctions have been working extremely well.
Let’s do more of them.
Amazing how well sanctions (don’t) work when you have the Russians and Chinese helping your 7th Century goat fucking asses out.
Yeah, I don’t think they’re nearly as interested in roadside bombs and booby traps as the goat herders are in Afghanistan. That’s not saying they won’t use them.
Also, Iran is using parts of the Old Silk Road trade route to send oil to China. It may be nothing but a dirt road through the mountains in some places, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it.
What are they gonna do now *GASP*, write a letter to the United Nothing about it? Maybe they’ll send Ahmadinnerjacket another letter saying how upset they are with him!?
I just took a peek at the MSN maps aerial images, which I think are updated about every six months or so. UP there in the northern end of Esfahan is a spot where construction is going on. It has three very large circles plus two smaller circles that look like foundations for something, plus a massive collection of piping. At first I thought it was for oil storage — underground tanks make sense if you’re expecting a war — but then I looked elsewhere and found an oil tank farm, big one, away from those large circles.
Guess what, boys and girls? That’s three more big nuke reactors, and possibly two smaller reactors, in Iran under construction and a lot of other construction going on, plus many, many buildings that look distinctly like assembly plants you might see in Detroit’s auto assembly plants.
If they are reactors and they haven’t been completed by now, then how long does it take to build even one?
Anyone who thinks Imadinnerjacket isn’t gearing up for war is a poofter.
If they are reactors and they haven’t been completed by now, then how long does it take to build even one?
Reactors themselves are a relatively straighforward process. It’s the containment building that costs so damn much, at least as far as civilian nukes go.
Iran and North Korea are good friends and allies. They know if they pout and threaten long enough, Jimmeh or Cigar-boy Bill will give them what they need: time and resources.
Speaking of Iran, why is Obama keeping the survivors of Benghazi sequestered?
They were just CIA contractors training Libyans in nation-building right?
Some day, soon, I hope to turn on the morning news to find that overnight Iran somehow turned into a giant, smoldering glass lined crater without explanation, save maybe the last words of a nuke tech: “oops”…
DaveO, now you’ve done it. Sippy will be here shortly to slap you with the race card. How dare you bring up inconvenient facts?
@UpNorth, Meh, bring sippy the fool on, I could go for a good troll-stomping today!
HEEEERE, DUMMY, DUMMY, DUMMY………….. SIIIIIPPPYYYY!!
@4 Well that’s the essence of it isn’t it. Competition for resources, the West imposes sanctions that the East is less interested in….instant sanction bypass system….in their own vision of world order China owes the US and Israel no loyalty.
They have no compunction regarding financing a nuclear Iran through oil purchases. Indeed keeping the US diplomatic corps and military interested in the Middle East keeps the focus off of our favored nation trading status partner, China.
#11: Sorry, couldn’t help myself.
@13, Russia and China are run by humans as well, they make mistakes too. Sooner or later their funding of rogue states is going to bite them in the 4th point of contact, just as propping up dictators has done so for us in the past.
Slight difference between us and them, Ken–“our” dictators aren’t exactly beholden to us, French, Brits, etc., and get froggy and have done so for quite a while.
Get under the thumb of a totalitarian state like the former Soviets or China and see how out of line they get.
It took over 35 years for the Poles to get enough sack up to even begin to stand up to the Soviets. I can’t think of a single Chinese sattelite state that has the balls to stand up to them.
Sparky, fair point. I was thinking more along the lines of the Samosas, The Shah, Mubarak, our other “friends of convenience”. I guess that kind of proves your point for you though, since none of them are left around. Still, it’s a lot easier for stuff to spill from Afghanistan into China/Russia than the US. You’d think they’d be aware of that, but apparently not.
Oh, Sparky, the Vietnamese gave the Chinese a black eye when the Chinese got uppity. The North Koreans don’t always follow the script that the Chinese might want them to. There’s a few.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I understand about Vietnam in 1979, but what went on there wasn’t nearly as embarassing (or bloody) as what the French had to endure. Granted, the logistics of supporting a colony from 7000 miles away versus holding down the fort right across your border is a bit of a difference, but still, you don’t hear about Tibet/Nepal, North Korea, or the Warsaw Pact states back in the day getting out of hand.
I remember when the Vietnamese and Chinese were doing border clashes about thirty years ago.They were throwing division-level elements against each other… most people would describe something of that magnitude as a ‘small war.’
What Iran needs is the final solution…. a “Strongly Worded Memorandum”