Apr 15, 2020
As
COVID-19 continues to endanger the health of people throughout the
world, it also magnifies a long-existent global humanitarian
crisis: The use of sanctions by the United States and other powers
as a weapon of war. In Iran, one of the countries most devastated
by the contagion, sanctions have strangulated the supply of medical
equipment crucial to testing the population and treating those who
are infected, inspiring some members of the political establishment
to call for sanctions to be eased. While these pleas are necessary,
they’re woefully inadequate and long overdue. Sanctions aren’t just
a problem when there’s a pandemic. Iran had been subjected to U.S.
and UN-imposed sanctions long before the appearance of the
contagion—as had Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Iraq, and far too
many other countries deemed Official Enemies of the United States
and its allies, resulting in economic destabilization,
vulnerability to U.S. militarism, starvation, illness, and mass
deaths.
Amid
these life-or-death stakes, media and think tanks’ responses to
sanctions range from mere handwringing to outright bloodlust.
Rather than decisively condemning sanctions as ruthless acts of
economic warfare, American media largely perpetuates the narrative
that sanctions are a necessity, and often a force for good, in the
effort to punish and “change the behavior” of some perceived
“rogue” government. Meanwhile, little criticism is offered outside
of tepid suggestions that those sanctions should be
tweaked.
On
today’s show, we’ll examine how the U.S. levies sanctions to
undermine countries opposed to U.S. hegemony, how sanctions are
laundered as benign in the media, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has
highlighted the preexisting, decades-long barbarism of U.S. foreign
policy.
We
are joined by guests Keyvan Shafiei and Hoda Katebi.