"We Need To Hurt The Iranian People"

Proponents Of Additional Sanctions Recognize The Sever Humanitarian Costs, But Argue Human Suffering In Iran Is Necessary 

By John Glaser, 
November 17, 2011 
Courtesy Of "Anti-War"

Senator Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) proposed additional economic sanctions on Iran on Thursday aimed at crippling the country’s central bank and stifling the Iranian economy.

One of the bill’s top supporters, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), said, “Critics [of the sanctions] argued that these measures will hurt the Iranian people.  Quite frankly, we need to do just that.”

The renewed push for additional sanctions against Iran comes after excessive government and media hype over the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a reportinflating concerns about a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program, although little evidence was put forth.

Senator Kirk’s plan was first advocated in August when a bipartisan group of 92 U.S. Senators signed a letter urging President Barack Obama to impose additional sanctions. In May, the U.S. imposed sanctions on foreign companies doing business with Iran’s energy industry and restricted the flood of money in and out of the country.

Rhetoric about the purposes of the sanctions are cold and homicidal. Many of the proponents proudly reference the sanctions imposed against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the 1990s. Not only did those sanctions have no favorable effect in Iraq’s policies, but they are also known to have directly contributed to the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children and up to one million Iraqis total.