Good Timing

BAM! I start researching sanctions, and guess what shows up on Google News's front page?

So according to Reuters, "Iran has rejected Western overtures and the international community has no choice but to move toward imposing new sanctions over its nuclear program, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday."

That's basically the entirety of the article, which sucks, because I don't have a lot of information to go off of, but it's a good start. So after my Friday post, it's clear that I'm not a fan of sanctions. And this vague decision by the new administration makes me nervous.

They don't specify the kind of sanctions, and as I discussed, there are many different kinds. Smart sanctions work to leave the civilians out of it, but not to such a point that they go entirely unscathed. So no matter how this turns out, the Iranian people are going to suffer.

I get that it's important for national defense to protect ourselves against a volatile government building WMDs without regard, but I don't know how sanctions are going to help. Without the support of the neighboring countries, this sanction will not be successful. If it's just a few of us "developed" countries, it's not going to warrant results. Or, at least, not the results we want.