sanctions – Memphis Flyer

I hate to give up, but on many levels I think it’s time to throw in the towel. I was going to write this for the younger readers out there, who may not remember Warner Brothers’ Henery Hawk cartoon. If you’ve never seen it or don’t quite remember it, it’s the one in which the tiny, puffed-up, overly aggressive chicken hawk ran around like a steroidal maniac looking for chickens to kill and eat but never succeeding because he just wasn’t quite mature enough. In fact, I found this description on a popular website for cartoon fans: “When their [Warner Brothers’] biggest stars found themselves in predatory situations, it was always in the latter role; they got their laughs by foiling those trying to hunt and kill them. Henery was a rare predator protagonist, whose laughs came from his inability to bring home anything to eat. It wasn’t that he had any inborn failings in that regard. His extreme aggression would no doubt make him a very competent chicken hawk, provided he didn’t starve to death before developing his skills. It’s just that he was too young and inexperienced to know a chicken when he saw one and far too small to do much about it if he did.” I was going to write about this as a way to explain the latest antics of the National Embarrassment (aka George W. Bush), but apparently I am behind the times and someone else already has laid rubber on the Information Highway before I could get to it. All of this is in reference, of course, to Bush’s latest insult to the intelligence of the human race by imposing his own personal sanctions on the people of Iran. Yes, according to Bush, it is the people of Iran who are the problem, make no mistake. He can veil it any way he likes — putting the blame on the country’s military — but the military will never bear anything near the brunt of these sanctions like the average Iranian citizen. Unless of course, Bush fulfills what appears to be his and Dick Cheney’s ultimate dream: starting World War III. All of these sanctions are based on the Iranian government having the “knowledge” to create nuclear weapons. No. My mistake — NUKECULAR weapons — as Bush continues to pronounce it, not caring how stupid he sounds. Yep, now we are punishing other countries for having “knowledge.” Guess there’s no real threat they will try to punish Bush. Cheney, maybe. But not W. Puffy. Why would anyone in his position of power even utter the phrase “World War III,” much less try to strike fear in the hearts of the great unwashed (read: those who still believe anything he says) about such a thing? Unless, of course, he really is crazy. I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt after he hosted the Dalai Lama and presented him with that big congressional honor. I thought maybe he had finally had a drink and chilled out. His eyes even seemed to separate a little so that they weren’t a half-inch apart. He came closer than he has in almost eight loooong years to bearing some slight resemblance to a human being. But no. Here he goes again. War! What is it good for? Absolutely something! It might make Blackwater another billion dollars or so and take our minds off the fact that he just vetoed health-care insurance for millions of children. And our Democratic-controlled Congress isn’t much better, in that they didn’t have the gumption to stand up to him. And they will probably confirm Michael Mukasey as the new attorney general, even if he does believe in torture. Of course, the National Embarrassment probably thinks waterboarding was a sport popular in California before the fires. I’m surprised it wasn’t addressed during FEMA’s recent “press conference,” during which employees of the agency tossed softball questions at their boss. But what does it really matter? If all keeps going as it is and the military keeps flying nuclear warheads around the U.S. and leaving them on military-base tarmacs for nine hours while everyone goes to lunch, we’re likely to bomb our own country and be done with it. Oops!

I had been thinking recently that I might start a business that would export fruitcakes to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. That was the most appropriate export I could think of. But the president has put the kibosh on that idea with his tough new sanctions.

Sanctions imposed by President Bush or Congress are always described as tough, but they only apply to Americans. Anybody in any other country who might like to sell fruitcakes to the Iranians is free to do so.

My point is that sanctions are generally stupid, since they affect only American businesses. As much as the president and Congress might wish otherwise, U.S. laws apply only in the U.S. American businesses can be barred from doing business with a country that displeases American politicians, but the ban doesn’t apply anywhere else.

And it does seem to me that I have at least heard rumors that today there is something called a global economy. Americans can’t invest in Cuba or in any of the other countries on the politicians’ scat list, but Europeans, Asians, and others can and do.

Other than substituting empty gestures for real action and appeasing domestic lobbies, I really don’t see what good sanctions do. It’s no longer 1945. We are not the only surviving industrial power. No matter what product you desire, you can find it in lots of other countries.

This empty gesture is just part of the buildup to attacking Iran militarily. As some noted expert recently said, you have to be living on a different planet to imagine that Iran is or ever would be a threat to the world.

Unfortunately, the president and Vice President Cheney apparently do live on another planet, because after a number of lies, they attacked two countries that were even less of a threat than Iran could ever hope to be.

Never mind that the Israeli foreign minister just said publicly that Israel would not be threatened by a nuclear Iran. Never mind that Iran says it wishes only to enrich uranium enough to fuel its reactors for generating electricity. Never mind that Iran does not have the capability of attacking either us or Israel.

I’d bet a dog that the president has convinced himself that we can stage another “shock and awe” show that will take out Iran’s nuclear facilities and its military assets in one easy surgical strike. Strategic bombing has been overrated ever since World War II. The president might know a lot about baseball, but he knows practically nothing about war.

Ask an American veteran who sat on an invasion fleet for days while naval guns and airplanes blasted some small Pacific island to smithereens. He will tell you that when he went ashore, the Japanese were still there ready to fight.

Our bombing campaign against Serbia no doubt killed Serb and Albanian civilians, but when it was over, the Serb army forces came out of Kosovo virtually intact. The famous shock-and-awe show made for good television but missed its intended target: Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants.

If you hope that bombing can take out Iran’s nuclear facilities and its military assets, you are hoping for something that only a magic fairy can deliver. And please, to talk about a “surgical” strike with bombs is like saying a sawed-off shotgun can be fired with pinpoint accuracy. You cannot bomb any urban area without killing innocent civilians.

Nobody can know for sure what will happen if our Great Leader decides to attack Iran, but anybody will tell you that it won’t be good. Come to think of it, maybe we all should send fruitcakes to the fruitcakes in the White House, if we can find the address of the planet they are living on.

Charley Reese has been a journalist for 50 years.