Hillary Clinton telling Iran that the US is looking for sanctions that bite is like telling them they’re grounded and cannot go outside.
Sanctions don’t work as far as political threats are concerned in the Middle East. And as reported in Daniel Ammann’s new book, The King of Oil, Israel got 60-90% of its oil from Iran at a time that they weren’t officially recognized because it was in everyone’s interest to be business partners although publicly they had to “not save face” and remain bitter enemies, officially speaking.
So all this jawboning about Iran does nothing but keep the War Machine moving forward. Officially, the US wants to stop them from developing a uranium enrichment program. Iran is the second largest producer of crude oil in OPEC. They can go buy a nuclear weapon or dozens of them. Pragmatically, there’s nothing the US can do.
Iran needs to keep the oil flowing and they will…to China, India, and Russia. After crude oil, Iran’s largest exports are, ready for this, Persian carpets, pistachios, and saffron.
Secretary Clinton was quoted in the NYT article as saying “parts of Iran’s government are ”a menace” to the Iranian people and the Middle East.” Wow, that sounds a lot like the United States…parts of our government are a menace to me and you. We have a lot in common with the Persians from that standpoint.
“Clinton said that if Iran developed a nuclear weapon, it would embolden terrorists and spark an arms race that would destabilize the Middle East.” It might be me, but I think poking a stick in their eye emboldens them more than anything else. My guess is that they have them already, not officially, but instinctively or Top Secretly.
Politicians will get behind this because they are elected by their donors, not their constituents.
In the end, Iran will stare down the US and win.