Mike Pompeo's biggest bully on the block foreign policy

When you are both the biggest and strongest bully on the block, you can get away with just about anything as long as you follow one simple rule: Don't try to take on the entire block at once.
Mike Pompeo has decided to ignore that one simple rule.

Referring to a $400 billion 25-year trade deal between Iran and China U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on August 2 said the United States will apply all Iran sanctions also to the "Chinese Communist Party and their businesses and state-owned enterprises".

Right. Here's the thing.
Iran is virtually cut off from the world because of our unilateral sanctions.
If we apply all of our Iran sanctions to China, that'll be a whole nuther magnitude compared to what exists today.
Think of it this way: Remember when Covid first struck and we had trouble getting masks and our pharmacy supply chain was strained because it was in China? Now imagine that we've sanctioned virtually everything from China.
We exported all of our industries to China. Applying all of the Iran sanctions to China means collapsing most of our supply chains.

But that's not all. Mike wants to take on everyone.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told lawmakers that the United States intends to impose sanctions on firms that continue to help Russia build a natural-gas pipeline to Europe as he sought to dispel concerns about Washington’s commitment to halt the controversial project.

"We will do everything we can to make sure that that pipeline doesn't threaten Europe," Pompeo told a senate hearing on July 30

Imposing sanctions on German and other European companies is bound to go over grand. In the same way as pissing in the punchbowl at a party is a way to win friends.
It appears that Pompeo, Trump, and Washington dramatically overestimates it's power of influence. A good example is the coming end of the UN weapons embargo on Iran.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday gave his clearest indication yet that the United States would seek to force UN sanctions on Iran if an arms embargo lapses...
"In the event it's not, we're going to take the action necessary to ensure that this arms embargo does not expire," he said.

The United States has previously said it has the authority to "snap back" UN economic sanctions that were lifted as part of a nuclear deal with Iran.

"We have the capacity to execute snapback and we're going to use it in a way that protects and defends America," Pompeo told the committee.

The 2015 resolution had blessed a denuclearization deal with Iran negotiated by former president Barack Obama from which President Donald Trump pulled out in 2018.

Trump has since repeatedly denounced the accord, but Pompeo argues that the United States remains a "participant" in the accord -- with the right to snap back UN sanctions for violations -- as it was listed in the 2015 resolution.

Even US allies are skeptical about the legal argument and warn that such a move could damage the Security Council as an institution.

So we pulled out of the Iran Treaty (aka violated), but we think we remain a "participant"? Not only that, but after every other nation not named Israel told us not to do that, we think that we can get everyone on-board with saying Iran violated the treaty?
Yeh, that'll go over.

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gulfgal98's picture

Most of us could see it coming, but no one expected it would happen this quickly. It took COVID-19 to speed it up. Somehow, we have managed to offend and infuriate nearly the entire world with our saber rattling. At this point, our friends in Europe would be foolhardy to back the US any further.

The United States is an empire in collapse and it is happening both within the country and now on the world stage. Meanwhile people are dying in the US, hungry, jobless with no income in sight and soon to be homeless while the US continues to waste treasure on seeking world domination.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

I'm positive you know more about this sanctions craziness than I do, but I notice that in spite of all the Obama and Trump adminstrations' bluster about how sanctions are killing Russia and Venezuela, Exxon is still in business in Russia and Chevron is still in business in Venezuela.

I realize these companies are states unto themselves and answerable to no one, and I know the Trump people have said Chevron will have to end their work in Venezuela next December, but I kind of wonder if our sanctions extravaganza isn't a lot of hot air, harmful to a a sector in no position to change what constitutes real power.

In other words, Pompeo's bluster is for our consumption, not China's. I'm just wondering, thinking out loud, and definitely not disagreeing with you.

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@Linda Wood

our sanctions aren't causing immense suffering, especially starvation, especially of children. We really know how to slaughter children. It's kind of what we do. But I doubt we are threatening the powerful.

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@Linda Wood
I think when it comes to following through with those threats, calmer heads will prevail.

That's not to say that having your bluff called doesn't have a cost too.
Eventually a lot of people will want to see the bully get put in his place.

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@gjohnsit

I sure hope you're right about this:

Eventually a lot of people will want to see the bully get put in his place.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@gjohnsit

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@Linda Wood
but the workers producing the engines that power our Atlas 5 rockets haven't died yet.

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earthling1's picture

and all these sanctions, and all this fist clinching is just to keep up the facade of America's exceptional indispensability in front of the American sheeple.
IMHO

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.