Make the Economy Scream

In 2013, President Obama bragged to the Wall Street Journal that his administration imposed on Iran “the strongest sanctions regime ever.” This included “the oil sanctions, the banking sanctions, the financial services sanctions… that have really taken a big chunk out of the Iranian economy.”
Obama told CNBC, “Iran’s economy has been crippled.” Eight years later, CNBC confirmed, “Iran’s economy is crumbling after years of U.S. sanctions.”

U.S. sanctions increased unemployment in Iran. The United Nations Children Fund wrote, “after the re-imposition of US sanctions against Iran in 2018, food insecurity more than doubled, affecting the most vulnerable populations, including children.” Human Rights Watch reported that U.S. sanctions contributed to “a lack of critical drugs for epilepsy patients [and] limited chemotherapy medications for Iranians with cancer.”

U.S. sanctions hurt Iranians with rare diseases (like leukemia) because the sanctions limited “Iran’s access to funds for imports of medicines and medical equipment.” The Intercept wrote, “thousands of Iranian patients have been killed or injured after foreign companies producing specialized medicines and equipment for these diseases and others began cutting off or reducing their business with Iran as a result of sanctions.”

Deliberately hurting Iranian children with rare skin diseases was the strategy. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CBS News, “Things are much worse for the Iranian people [with the US sanctions], and we are convinced that will lead the Iranian people to rise up and change the behavior of the regime.”

This doesn’t excuse Iran’s repression of protesters. Instead, like the Wall Street Journal reported, it explained why Iranians protested in anger. The Journal wrote, “The biggest harbinger that things were about to fall apart in Iran… came from the collapse of a bank.” The Iranian bank collapse “was a broader crisis in the financial system that accelerated following the reimposition of U.S. sanctions in 2018.”

Mike Pompeo— and other U.S. officials— admitted that the U.S. stranglehold on the Iranian economy would force the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow the Ayatollah. The Journal confirmed Pompeo’s plan to crush the economy and force Iranians to protest had worked.

Ronald Reagan said, “Iran’s oil deposits are important to the long-term health of the world economy.” The National Security Council stated, “it is vastly important that the operations of the great oil fields of the world remain as far as possible in the hands of American-owned companies.”

For three-quarters of a century, the U.S. attempted to control the Iranian government so U.S. companies could rob them of their natural resources.

In 1953, the Eisenhower administration and the CIA overthrew the elected Iranian leader, Mohammed Mossadegh, after he nationalized Iran’s oil and threw out British oil companies.

But, the Iranian people should have no fear. The Journal reported, “The U.S. is sending an aircraft-carrier strike group, additional jet fighters and missile defenses to the region, in a sign that bombs could still fall shortly after their arrival.” Soon, we will bomb Iran, overthrow Iran’s government, and take Iran’s oil.

-Anton Porcari

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