US Slaps More Sanctions on Iran

The US State and Treasury Departments yesterday announced new and improved sanctions against Iran, and especially its Revolutionary Guards and its elite Quds Force. The actions of the Guards and Quds, which the US contends is a terrorist organization, in next-door Iraq-Nam “are inconsistent with the Iranian government’s obligations and stated commitment to support the Iraqi government,” to quote Secretary of State neoCondoleezza Rice. There is also the continuing worry about a nuclear Iran. Note to the White House: sanctions never work, unless the idea is to ratchet up the other side’s resistance.

Now, there’s no denying that the Revolutionary Guards aren’t a nasty bunch of jackbooted wankers – they remind one of the German Brownshirts before Ernst Rohm was purged. And the Quds Force is merely the scum on top of that swamp. Moreover, the Revolutionary Guards have moved well beyond their military roots. The organization now owns manufacturing businesses, oil production companies, newspapers and construction firms. In a sense, it is Iran’s military-industrial complex.

So, the administration is correct in identifying these guys as a threat. Getting the problem right, though, isn’t the same as getting the solution right. Effective more or less immediately, 20 Iranian companies, banks and persons are to be cut off from the US banking system. Given the preponderance of American power in the global banking system, this does create problems for those 20 entities. It also means that non-US entities doing business with the 20 banned Iranians might face trouble from the US banking authorities.

That said, there have been sanctions on Iran since 1979, so these extras really aren’t going to be that hard to work around. Indeed, the move gives Beijing and Moscow an opportunity to increase their economic ties with Tehran. Iran could do all of its business with a single Russian or Chinese bank, and that bank could clear everything through a completely separate Russian or Chinese bank. The Americans would never really know, or if they did, they couldn’t act without harming economic relations with one of the world’s biggest oil producers or with a country that holds $1 trillion of US debt.

These sanctions, like those in place since 1979, won’t make any difference at all when it comes to the nuclear or terrorist bargaining table. In Iran, the sanctions will be seen as an American economic attack on the “brave and beautifully Islamic” Revolutionary Guards and their vanguard elite Quds. The Iranians may not put yellow magnets on their SUVs saying “support the troops,” but the sentiment is the same. They’ll support their boys more now that their boys have been attacked by the Great Satan in this way. Clearly, the Bush administration has learned nothing after almost 7 years in office.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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