Sanctions and War
August 10, 2017
FROM an article by Darius Shahtahmasebi:
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 US 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 US 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 US 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 US imposed economic sanctions on Syria, supposedly over Syria’s support for terrorism and its “failure to stop militants entering Iraq” – a country the US 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 US has been openly bombing its territory under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump; the US has already bombed the Syrian government multiple times over the past year. If it had not been for the Russian intervention, the US 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. [cont.]
— Comments —
George Weinbaum writes:
I read The Tragic Fallacy: A Study of America’s War Policies about 20 years ago.
The next to the last chapter is titled, “Japan, the chosen foe”. In 1937 the author concluded the US was attempting to goad the Japanese into a war.
The July or August 1941, Executive Order 8832, led directly to the war.
Yes, sanctions are often a prelude to war.
