Endless War 0
Pepe Escobar, writing at Asia Times, sees the formation of a no-way-out spiral into the dealing of more death.
A nugget:
No wonder Brussels was caught as a Gucci deer in the headlights when the news started to flow that Tehran would pre-empt the move and immediately slap its own embargo of crude oil exports to six European Union countries – deeply in crisis Club Med members Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain plus recession-hit France and the Netherlands.
It took virtually no time for Iran’s Oil Ministry and then the Foreign Ministry to deny it; such a decision, technically, would have to be officially announced by the Supreme National Security Council, which also deals with the nuclear negotiations.
But only the deaf, dumb and blind wouldn’t understand the message; blowback for the ridiculously counter-productive European sanctions/oil embargo package will only plunge vast swathes of Europe further into deep economic pain.
A common fallacy among politicians regarding international relations is assuming that other nations will react the politicians want them to. They are correct about as often as Criswell.
I’m trying to think back over all the international sanctions I recall during my lifetime. I don’t have time to do research, but, off the top of my head, I think the only ones that produced a positive outcome were the ones against apartheid South Africa. The others tended towards failure (Cuba, for example, where the U. S. is pretty much the only nation left enforcing sanctions) or further deterioration of the situation (Iraq after the First Gulf War).
