The beat goes on:
Despite the Obama administration’s vows to cripple Iran with economic sanctions, it is leaders in Congress and Europe who have seized the lead in the West’s long-running campaign to punish Tehran for its suspected nuclear weapons program.
In recent months, the toughest moves to deter Iran from pursuing its presumed nuclear ambitions have come from a bipartisan group in Congress and European allies, especially Britain and France. The White House at first resisted these steps before embracing them as inevitable.
The administration has imposed dozens of sanctions on Iran since 2009, but it has carefully calibrated their effect. Officials fear that too powerful a blow to the world’s third-largest oil exporter could cause an oil price increase, damaging the global economic recovery, undermining international support for the sanctions campaign and creating political trouble in an election year.
For example, top administration officials late last year were strongly resistant when Congress slapped Iran’s central bank with harsh sanctions. The European Union then went further, however, imposing an embargo to halt purchases of Iranian oil by European nations over the ensuing five months.
If and when the balloon goes up – Iranian warships are now prowling in the Med – we will not have the luxury of leading from behind.
“…and creating political trouble in an election year.”
Does anyone doubt that these suggested consequences of an oil price increase are listed in reverse order of priority?
My friend and shooting buddy, a former submariner, tells me that there are two kinds of ships.
Submarines and targets.
The Iranians might want to consider that they fought a war with Iraq for 5 or 6 years, neither could defeat the other.
George Bush with a little help from the Navy (and a few other services) totally annihilated Iraq’s “fearsome” military in just a few days.
Just a small thought for Achmadingaling.
That’s why I’d like to see, at a minimum, another 25 SSNs in our inventory. With our boat as quiet as they are, almost no surface ship is safe against them.
Years ago, John Keegan wrote a book entitled “The Price of Admiralty” in which he predicted the next capital ship would be the fast attack submarine. After a bit of thought, I had to agree. The SSN count will have to be high enough to kill the enemy’s boats so the surface ships can operate safely. The SSN has become the F-22 of the pelagic regions and we need far more than what we have.
As an old SF fan in general, and a Larry Niven fan in particular, I wonder why people don’t refer to Barry Soetoro as “The Hindmost.” I mean, that shoe really does fit.
I had not thought of that term in a long while. I’m a big fan too, read every single book up through the second Ringworld novel. I don’t like his new stuff as well, though.
So, why not the Hindmost? I’d guess because the Puppeteers were a devious race who secretly controlled the galaxy from behind the scenes, whereas Obama claims to be in power but in fact exercises very little control over anything?
That’s what I was going to say! The Hindmost. Biggest coward of all the race. Puppeteers!
Brian R … The Hindmost? As in the Devil take the hindmost?” As you say above, Obama claims to be The Man Who Runs Things, But he doesn’t seem to be able to keep his wife from taking frequent, extremely expensive vacations without him. I had an Italian singer as a beau when I was young, and was allowed to hear his friends and brothers say [about his divorced wife] “what’s the matter? Can’t you keep one woman happy?”
Hmmmm… Well, as for Michelle, she’s off on another expensive vacation. Washington is pretty boring sometimes because some, at least, of its politicians feel that they should be working at least some of the time. And Michelle’s truck garden on the White house grounds isn’t doing very well. She’s been away too much.
Marianne
Wrong metaphor, in this case. “The Hindmost” refers to the leader of a race of space aliens, called the Puppeteers, in Larry Niven’s books. They’re descended from herbivores. Being basically prey rather than predators, they’re innately cowardly. So their highest “leader” is the placed as far as possible from anything dangerous – hence he is “The Hindmost”.
Of all these scattered ‘sanctions’, this may hit pretty hard, if true.
This comes from Theos place today, by Rico, with no cites:
“Holy crap!
Iran is to be dropped from the SWIFT system [Society for World-wide Interbank Financial Telecommunications] in Belgium.
- This means Iran can NOT send or receive Bank money wires through SWIFT.
SWIFT operates the bulk of global cross-border payments.
- The NB of Belgium operates SWIFT.
This is kinda ‘serious’ folks, and amounts to a ‘financial’ declaration of war.”
=
Will be interesting, if true.
And so it goes…
Having been there recently, I can honestly say that “prowling” is pretty much the farthest thing from the truth of what the IRIN can probably pull off.