Unintended Consequences – the Double Edged Sword of Sanctions

Mike Gravel states the obvious – so why is American asleep at the wheel?

           … by  Jim W. Dean, VT Editor                          … with Press  TV

VT has editorialized on the huge industrialization effort going on in Iran to make itself as bulletproof as possible long range to Western financial warfare. And make no mistake about it, that is exactly what U.S. and EU policy has been.

Iran’s people are struggling, yes…but so is the West and much of the rest of the world. But there is a big difference. Iran is not drowning in debt. That gives them a strategic advantage that flies over the heads of most in the West. There is a serious denial element to it, also.

Western strategists are also missing that the sanctions have peaked interest in the need long term for a new Asian banking structure for clearing trade, and I see no way that it will not happen.

Those who could be targeted in the future understand that it is a life of death deal for them to never be vulnerable to western financial sanctions.

The geo-political shifts here will be irreversible, all which will have negative effects on our children and grand children. One of those will be a decrease in foreign investment in the U.S. as it can always be held hostage or ever seized over some arbitrary policy decision, one that could have been made via a totally corrupt back room ‘special interests’ deal that the American people are not aware of.

These foreign countries, many of them with well educated publics, are now aware of the depth of corruption in the American political system. The Israeli Lobby mess has just been the canary in the coal mine. If the little country of Israel could wield such power, just think what some really powerful entities could do.

Iran’s strength is in leveraging it’s petrochemical wealth do its scientific and industrial wealth to compete with the big Western multi-nationals. Is this why they are really deemed a threat?

Is our military transforming into modern ‘John Company’ for the British India days? I refer here  to the East India Company started by Sir John Banks. It had it’s own private British Army which was paid solely out of the operating funds of the company.

Because of our stupid policy, for their own national security interest these countries will also be looking to source anything that they need outside American and EU production.

What Iran has done, even under sanction pressure, others are asking themselves, why cannot we do something similar when we are not under sanctions?

The abject failure of our corporate media to even be asking questions like this of our American sanctions policy is unforgivable. It terms of their wearing the hallowed mantel of our 4th estate, they have been a disgrace. The same goes or the nuclear threat silliness.

Corporate media has also not been questioning the rationale behind the shift of American geo-politico power to Asia. Once again, no real justification was give for it as our elites view the American people as a kind of farm animal, and we carry some of the blame for that.

The smokescreen justification most often used is ‘American interests’, with a period at the end. The assumption, but one not stated, is the hint of defense security interests. But they don’t seem to really want to give us any security analysis of where such a threat is.

China, for example, is in a totally defensive posture just like Iran, putting their military expenditures into where they see the most benefit…defense.  For the Americans, it is offensive. But knowing that no such threats actually exists they have a fall back position,  that one ‘could emerge’ in the future.

This ‘could emerge’ two words is a cash cow to our military industrial complex, an economic war they themselves are conducting against the American people. Budget deficits or not, they want their money, and they plan to create and present their well crafted ‘pay us or die’ scenarios.

No one in Asia can really threaten American national security interests…unless those interests concern our offensive ones, like making sure no competitive trading system with a separate bank clearing process could emerge.

I watched this policy being rolled out and waited for it to be attacked and torn to shreds for being totally bogus. Asia is not one of my background fortes so I hung back on writing anything about it. I also was waiting to hear the term ‘gunboat’ diplomacy to be used. It was not, so yours truly is putting it out there today.

I see one, and only one justification for any of this. There are forces out there, the real evil ones, that are thinking long term about where are we going to get our next big war from so they can make the only ‘big money’ that can be made throughout history, ‘tearing it down and then building it all up again.’

I don’t have to tell you whose business that has been for a few hundred years.  I will give you a hint. They never run for office and are not impeachable, and those who you think really run things are just their lieutenants. You want an example? OK…Israel is one of their lieutenants.

The Navy is fully onboard the new Asia forward deployment, but they are drinking their own Koolaid as nothing is going to become more of a strategic waste than the fleet navy. Why? Because missile development is neutralizing them as I type. The killing power of missile technology is etching doom on their tombstones.

Cruise missile speed has vastly increased. They are very affordable in mass production, which allows for them being fired in salvo after salvo, a 100 or 200 at time at a navy fleet, every 30 seconds  for a few minutes if desired. Such missiles can be widely dispersed so as to make them invulnerable to a first strike.

And another thing that no one wants to discuss is they can be armed with lightweight mini-nukes, which are not only plenty to do the job, but do not have the big weapon nuclear after effects.

The total block out on mini-nukes is because they have not only been here for a while, but they have been used, and not by bad guys. They have been used by _______ (fill in the blank).

So the big secret they are keeping from all of you here is that these weapons they have already used against certain targets. Those who know this and wisely are trying to protect themselves by having some kind of defense are being casts as threats against America.

Think about where the evil really lies in that scenario.

You can pooh pooh on this all you want to, but I am signing my name to it.  What we have in play here is the Israeli model of strategic foreign policy…anyone who can defend themselves from a pre-emptive strike is a threat which has to be neutralized.

How? All options are on the table. Folks, that is a mad dog neighbor, one who is a threat to everybody, and I see signs that more and more are catching on to it.

Everybody who buys into this offensive defence is signing up to a form of Neo-Slavery in that they are going to suck you and your future seed dry financially. ‘Pay up or die’ has always been at great closing tactic in that big game.

What we are missing is that the big threat is where it has always been at…here. But we have let them keep us on the merry-go-round to make sure our opposition efforts, no matter how motivated, continue to go in circles.

Sure, we are running a growing guerrilla opposition to them now, but we have failed to actually take any of the real opposition out (other than Romney’s attempted knock out blow on us), so they always remain to fight another day. That is why they have been winning.

Take a look at the international financial fraud that happened, 9-11, the phony War-on-Terror, the Patriot Act being passed with no one reading it…who do you think set all that up? Nobody believes that Arabs living in caves watching porn did it, but has that put a dent really into those responsible?

What other country besides Iran is executing bankers for bank fraud because it is viewed as a kind of crime of treason against the country, an idea I find not only wonderful by highly civilized.

And of what benefit have our democratically elected representatives been in defending us from this? Humble me, I would suggest to you…zero. And if someone were to ask me bluntly, “then does that mean they are really in on it”, my answer would be ‘yes’, they have aided and abetted. I take no joy in having to say this.

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 Sanctions best thing that ever happened to Iran: Ex-US Senator

Press TV – Iran  –  published  Sunday, February 24th, 2013

A former American Senator says the “illegal” US-led sanctions against Iran have proven counterproductive by making the Islamic Republic “totally independent.”

“I gotta tell you, there’s no question the sanctions are discomfiture, but in the long run it is the best thing that’s ever happened to Iran,” Mike Gravel, a former two-term Alaska Senator, said in an interview with Foreign Policy.

Gravel, who traveled to the Iranian capital Tehran earlier in February to participate in the Third International Conference on Hollywoodism and Cinema, explained that sanctions have made the Iranians “totally independent and forced them to internalize their economic activity, to build machines.”

“We rode for about 10 miles right through the heart of Iran where they’re building an elevated highway. Boy, I’ll tell you, that was an impressive work area. So the city is just like a normal thriving city. It has prosperity. You could tell by the traffic jams. The architecture’s extremely attractive and imposing, and so what’s happened to the country is it’s being forced into independence.”

He added that Iran is on the road to development and progress, saying, “You force domestic wares to be produced and then you turn around and you can export your product very competitively … and so that’s what’s going on in Iran.

The US, Israel, and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that the Iranian nuclear program has been diverted toward military objectives.

The former American Senator slammed the US-led sanctions on Iran as Washington has no inkling that “what it’s doing is counterproductive to arriving at a solution.”

He emphasized that Iran has not violated the IAEA regulations, noting that the UN nuclear agency has had investigators all over the place who are going to continue to do that.

Pointing to a fatwa (religious decree) issued by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on the prohibition of the production and use of nuclear weapons, Gravel added, “I think there’s a great insincerity on part of the [US President Barack] Obama administration unfortunately.

Probably the best approach to this, the Imam has stated very clearly they are not going to pursue the acquisition of the bomb because the Koran dictates that they cannot do that.”

Addressing the opening ceremony of the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran on August 30, 2012, Ayatollah Khamenei said Tehran considers the use of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, to be an “unforgivable sin.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the use of nuclear, chemical, and similar weapons to be a great and unforgivable sin,” the Leader stated.

“There’s no intelligence estimates that indicate they’re pursuing a bomb. None at all,” Gravel added.

Despite allegations by the US and the Israeli regime, a report last year by 16 American intelligence agencies confirmed that Tehran is not seeking to build nuclear weapons. The Israeli intelligence community also agreed with the assessment.

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Jim W. Dean

Jim W. Dean was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022.  He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.

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