Iranian Sanctions and the Homogenization of Values
By Sarah Stern and Kyle Shideler
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently said that the draft U.N sanctions against Iran are “stronger than he expected,” according to the Voice of America, which sounds rather like a case of lowering expectations in order to preserve self-esteem.
How strong are they? Gates tells us if other countries “take significantly more stringent actions on their own, that go way beyond, well beyond, what the U.N. resolution calls for…” then we may see some change in Iran’s behavior.
Don’t hold your breath. Not only is there essentially no chance of key nations like China and Russia taking “stringent actions on their own,” but the sanctions as they stand are already weak. They do not prevent the transfer of S-300 Air Defense Missiles, for instance, which have been part of a controversial arms deal arranged between Iran and Russia, and expected to bolster the air defense of Iran’s nuclear installations.
Much of the Obama’s rhetoric during the presidential campaign, and foreign policy pronouncements once in office, have focused on the previous administration’s “unilateralism.” It was alleged that under President Bush, the United States had alienated allies by refusing to heed their interests, and that this American “arrogance” was responsible for rising anti-Americanism. But under President Obama, allies such as Israel, Czech Republic, Poland, and Great Britain, are the ones being alienated. “You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world,” said an Obama State Department official about Great Britain‘s relations with the United States, “You shouldn’t expect special treatment.”
After all, why should allies of the United States be treated as special, if in the view of the current administration, there isn’t anything special about the United States either?
“I believe in American exceptionalism,” said President Obama, “just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism, and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”
In other words, there isn’t anything exceptional about the United States at all.
This understanding drives the Obama Administration into a departure from the foreign policies of all previous administrations, all of which were founded on a concept of American exceptionalism. The idea that American ideals had an important place in the world, and that American power protected those ideals.
This was true from the Monroe Doctrine, which guaranteed independence for the nascent nations of South and Latin America, to the Truman doctrine, which postulated, “It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”
If being America’s ally no longer earns any special treatment, the same cannot be said for being America’s enemy. Whether Iran, Syria or terrorist Hezbollah, being an opponent of America earns endless attention, negotiations, and “understanding.”
Is it any surprise them that once relatively stalwart allies like Turkey and Brazil have drifted into the Iranian-Syrian-Venezuelan revolutionary axis. Take their recent injection into the Iranian Nuclear debate, with their proposed Uranium transfers deal which would be Iran additional time and not seriously hamper its nuclear ambitions.
Worse yet, Brazilian officials are now claiming that they were operating with the understanding that President Obama had already agreed to the broad strokes of that deal, according to the New York Times, although Obama administration officials say the Brazilians have misinterpreted the letter from President Obama.
This confused waffling, first accepting in principle a deal it later rejects, if it occurred, would also be symptomatic of a foreign policy not operating on firm principled grounds.
Confusion reigns domestically as well. Even as Secretary Gates seems to suggest that other nations should take “stringent” measures, the Obama Administration weakens U.S Sanctions against Iran.
Take for instance the recent decision, announced May 22nd, that the U.S will be lifting sanctions against three Russian firms implicated in providing nuclear or missile technology to Iran. According to the AFP newswire this brings the total number of Russian firms that the Obama Administration has released from U.S sanctions for proliferation activity to five since January.
Meanwhile, the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act continues to languish in conference committee, which according to GovTrack.US, a legislative bill tracking site, last met a month ago when it immediately came under heavy pressure from the Obama Administration to provide authority to exempt “cooperating countries,” from the sanctions, according to the Washington Times.
Thus a real crippling sanctions regime against Iran is undermined both at home, and abroad, even as the Financial Times reported recently that sanctions on oil production may indeed be working.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, South Korea has publicly confirmed that a naval ship which sank off its coast was indeed torpedoed by North Korea. North Korea has threatened “all-out war” if sanctioned over the attack.
Ultimately, the incident proves that being a nuclear-armed rogue state, as North Korea professes to be means “never having to say you’re sorry.” It becomes a nuclear “get out of jail free card,” which offenders like North Korea, and eventually Iran if nothing is done, can play regardless of the provocation. Thus the free western democracies are the ones who end up being deterred, led by a United States whose Commander-in-Chief does not see any difference between a Nuclear-armed America, and a nuclear-armed Iran.
And just look at how provocative Iran is without nuclear weapons. Arming Hezbollah with between 50-60,000 missiles, including scuds, and possibly the chemical weapons to arm them. And Hezbollah has now begun preparing for another cross-border kidnapping operation, similar to the one which initiated the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and has threatened to target military and civilian shipping, in a future war with Israel. Meanwhile, U.S officials call for outreach to Hezbollah moderates.
Such appeasement must stop, time has grown too short. As Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Daniel Meridor correctly stated, The United States’ influence in the region will be determined, not by Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, not by appeasing Iran or Hezbollah, but by whether or not the U.S prevents a nuclear-armed Iran.
More broadly, the United States must return to a foreign policy based on the idea that the United States and its democratic allies are, as President Ronald Reagan had stated that “shining city on the Hill,” and that Western liberal democracies are exceptional.