Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

PBS and NPR Mount Last-Ditch Fight to Save Federal Funding

4 hours ago

Netanyahu Under Mounting Political Pressure After Party Quits

4 hours ago

Wall Street Opens Higher After Inflation, Bank Results

5 hours ago

Sick of Loud Ads on Netflix? A Proposed California Law Turns Down the Volume

24 hours ago
Trump's Iran Sanctions Will Hurt Hopes for Democracy
GV-Wire-1
By gvwire
Published 7 years ago on
June 14, 2018

Share

Anyone who has seen the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War” knows that a single congressman provided great help to the Afghan Mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Later, these same rebels would target the United States.

“The academic literature is clear: Far from promoting liberal democracy, sanctions tend to make the countries subject to them more authoritarian and repressive.” — The Atlantic’s Peter Beinart 
And these days, it’s hard to miss President Donald Trump promising to crack down on violent MS-13 gang members. Absent from Trump’s speeches is this context: During the 1980s, the United States provided arms to El Salvador’s government in a bloody civil war against leftist rebels. That war produced the migration leading to the birth of MS-13.
Peter Beinart, a contributing editor at The Atlantic, cites both of these examples in his commentary “How Sanctions Feed Authoritarianism” about Iran.

Sanctions Make Countries More Authoritarian

“It’s worth remembering these precedents (Afghanistan, El Salvador) as the Trump administration prepares to reimpose sanctions on Iran as part of its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal,” Beinart writes.
“The academic literature is clear: Far from promoting liberal democracy, sanctions tend to make the countries subject to them more authoritarian and repressive.
“The reason is that sanctions shift the balance of power in a society in the regime’s favor. As sanctions make resources harder to find, authoritarian regimes hoard them. They make the population more dependent on their largesse, and withhold resources from those who might threaten their rule.”

Sanctions Against Iraq Made Rebuilding It Difficult

In arguing against stiff sanctions on Iran, Beinart also cites the example of Iraq.
“After toppling Saddam in 2003, the Bush administration discovered that governing and rebuilding Iraq was far harder than it had predicted,” Beinart says. “Ironically, that was partly because America’s own sanctions policies had made Iraq a less modern, less secular, less educated society than it had been 15 years before.”
You can read Beinart’s piece at this link.
 

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

UP NEXT

MAGA Is Tearing Itself Apart Over Jeffrey Epstein

US Senator Seeks Safety Reforms After Fatal Collision Between Army Helicopter, Regional Jet

38 minutes ago

US Consumer Prices Rise in June as Tariff Pass-Through Begins

40 minutes ago

US Senate to Vote on Trump Funding Cuts, AIDS Program Funding Preserved

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate is due to begin voting on Tuesday on President Donald Trump’s request to slash billions in spending...

53 seconds ago

The U.S. Capitol building is seen as a thunderstorm rolls through Washington, D.C., U.S., July 1, 2025. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)
53 seconds ago

US Senate to Vote on Trump Funding Cuts, AIDS Program Funding Preserved

16 minutes ago

Court Compels Fresno Council to Approve 4-Story Herndon Apartment Complex

The Dragon Bravo Fire burns on the northern rim as seen from Mather Point on the southern rim of Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S. July 15, 2025. (Reuters/David Swanson)
28 minutes ago

Grand Canyon Fire That Was Left to Burn Swells 50% After Destroying Historic Lodge

The air traffic control tower can be seen from the Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport terminal, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. May 15, 2025. (Reuters File)
38 minutes ago

US Senator Seeks Safety Reforms After Fatal Collision Between Army Helicopter, Regional Jet

Shoppers cross the intersection of Broadway and Spring Street in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, U.S., September 21, 2023. (Reuters File)
40 minutes ago

US Consumer Prices Rise in June as Tariff Pass-Through Begins

Rachel Grace Lucas is Valley Crime Stoppers' Most Wanted Person of the Day for July 15, 2025. (Valley Crimes Stoppers)
48 minutes ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rachel Grace Lucas

2 hours ago

Teen Girl Suspect in Caleb Quick Killing Returns to Court. Will She Be Tried as Adult?

2 hours ago

Visalia Basketball Coach Dies While Hiking in Sequoia National Park

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend