Washington's "maximum pressure" foreign-policy strategy continues to backfire
Submitted by gjohnsit on Fri, 07/10/2020 - 12:54pmThe Trump administration's policy of all-stick/no-carrot continues to fail.
This time with Iran.
The Trump administration's policy of all-stick/no-carrot continues to fail.
This time with Iran.
This was an unusual headline to see on the NY Times.
own goal
noun: (in soccer) a goal scored inadvertently when the ball is struck into the goal by a player on the defensive team.
If you thought that the defense budget was completely out-of-control and couldn't get any worse, think again. The new, "totally bipartisan" defense bill is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with our political system.
The reasons are too numerous to count, so I'll just stick to the highlights.
Congress is looking to impose new sanctions on Russia and any company that works with Russia.
Europe has largely failed to do what is necessary to save the Iran nuclear deal.
However, someone else has stood up for Iran against U.S. sanctions.
When I say that Turkey is openly defying U.S. sanctions, I don't mean it in one particular way.
I mean that Turkey is defying U.S. sanctions in four different ways.
It appears that Turkey is intentionally antagonizing Washington. As if they are daring Washington to do something about it.
In theory, sanctions are a non-violent method of persuasion. That is not what is happening in Syria.
The U.S. has been squeezing the Russian oil and gas industry since 2014.
The Trump Administration made it perfectly clear: no more waivers on Iranian sanctions. No exceptions.