Dick Morris On Iran

Source: RCP

Dick Morris, who I consider a bit of a lunatic, a smart one to be sure, but a lunatic has a good suggestion today on how we can apply pressure on Iran...

We should pass — and the president should sign — the Dodd-Lantos bill mandating economic sanctions on any foreign company that aids Iran’s energy industry. Domestic companies are already prohibited from such investments.

This Democratic bill, cosponsored by Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.) and Rep. Tom Lantos (Calif.), is a bold piece of legislation that strikes at the core of Iranian vulnerability.

And, in a singular act of courage and dedication to principle, Republican presidential candidate Congressman Duncan Hunter (Calif.) has added his name to the legislation as a cosponsor. Hunter’s action is particularly admirable since the bill is designed to force the Bush administration to impose sanctions passed in the 1990s but disregarded by both presidents, Clinton and Bush, ever since.

The Dodd-Lantos bill would omit the national security waiver Clinton used twice to stop the sanctions from taking effect. The waiver was inserted at the insistence of then-National Security Advisor Sandy Berger (before he started stealing documents in his socks). For his part, President Bush has not even waived the law, he just hasn’t applied it at all.

The original sanctions legislation provided a variety of punishments that the president had to impose on foreign companies that invest in Iran’s oil and gas industries. These ranged from barring their participation in underwriting Treasury issues to prohibiting them from receiving export-import financing, as well as certain government contracts. The sanctions were so effective that they triggered howls of outrage from European governments that objected to what they called “extraterritorial” assertions of American power.

Presumably neither Bush nor Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wants to rekindle the war of words with European governments, so they have not applied the sanctions that remain on the books. They probably worry that to do so would shatter Western unity in the face of Iranian aggression and the threat of nuclear-weapons development.

As we like Mr. Duncan on this blog, if he supports this then I am more than willing to believe it's worth a shot. And frankly I don't think there's anything wrong with reminding people that if they want to do business here perhaps they shouldn't do it with out enemies. We are under no obligation to allow anyone to do business here, and that's one of the problems with insane Cobhamites running things, they believe the 'market' is the highest ethical good.

And of course that is sheer nonsense. If we would rather a non-military solution to the Iran situation it appears to me we have two choices, this first entails some rather severe hand wringing and pointless whining, the second more robust response entails hitting Iran in the place every country is vulnerable -- the pocketbook.

How mad is it that our president will fight to protect the economy of our enemy?

H/T Polipundit

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