Amid the hysteria to start this week about the crazy reality of skewed poll truthers and the zingers Mitt's planning to hurl against President Obama during this Wednesday's debate, some important news is developing in the Islamic Republic of Iran. To pull a quote from a Rick Gladstone NYT story tonight:
Iran’s already fragile currency, the rial, has fallen in value by about 40 percent over the past week, battered by a combination of potent Western sanctions over the disputed Iranian nuclear program and new anxieties among Iranians about their government’s economic stewardship, analysts said.
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Now this situation is still developing at a rapid pace, but what is becoming ever clear is that the approach to dealing with Iran's nuclear program through western imposed economic sanctions is having a profound effect.
To recap, in 2010 President Obama signed into law the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010. President Obama's remarks at the signing of the act into law on July 1, 2010:
Other nations are now acting alongside us -- nations like Australia, which announced new sanctions, including those against a major Iranian bank and Iran’s shipping company. The European Union is moving ahead with additional strong measures against Iran’s financial, banking, insurance, transportation, and energy sectors, as well as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Other countries, like Canada, have indicated they will also be taking action. In other words, we are ratcheting up the pressure on the Iranian government for its failure to meet its obligations.
President Obama went on to say:
In short, with these sanctions -— along with others —- we are striking at the heart of the Iranian government’s ability to fund and develop its nuclear program. We’re showing the Iranian government that its actions have consequences. And if it persists, the pressure will continue to mount, and its isolation will continue to deepen. There should be no doubt —- the United States and the international community are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Finally, even as we increase pressure on the Iranian government, we’re sending an unmistakable message that the United States stands with the Iranian people as they seek to exercise their universal rights. This legislation imposes sanctions on individuals who commit serious human rights abuses. And it exempts from our trade embargo technologies that allow the Iranian people to access information and communicate freely. In Iran and around the world, the United States of America will continue to stand with those who seek justice and progress and the human rights and dignity of all people.
As many of you know, I am a former Republican, but one of the major things that began to turn me forever away from the party was the primal instinct to saber rattle and force our will upon the world with our arrogance and our bombs.
I'm a firm supporter of diplomacy first and building multi-national coalitions to provide pressure against bad actors, and this is why I have become a progressive.
When I hear Mitt insist that we need to strongly threaten military actions against Iran, it reminds me of something that was said to me that has never escaped my thoughts:
When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die.
Allen Fire