US To Sanction China For Buying Iran Oil [video and commentary]

Posted by Alcyone _Featured_, Politics Wednesday, August 15th, 2012

“Whose house is of glass, must not throw stones at another.”  

- George Herbert, 1651 

Commentary

By Jonathan Willbanks

The United States will sanction China for purchasing oil from Iran.

This disastrous foreign policy is at best a hypocritical double standard, as the U.S. buys vast amounts of oil from terrorist-harboring states such as Saudi Arabia, and some of the world’s most egregious abusers of human rights such as Myanmar and Sudan.

But unfortunately, that is a philosophical and moral argument — two factors that have had little bearing on US foreign policy in the past decade. On a purely pragmatic front, it is both irrational and unwise for the US to impose economic sanctions on  China, its largest creditor, particularly in light of its impending debt ceiling extension.

Further exacerbating the absurdity of this move, because China manufactures virtually all commercial goods sold in the United States, any economic sanctions imposed on them will only be transferred back onto American consumers via higher prices. And finally, in the unlikely event that China is willing acquiesce to Washington’s demands and ceases to purchase Iranian Oil, they will be forced to buy it elsewhere, thus increasing global demand and raising oil prices for the US. Either way, the real costs of these economic sanctions will ultimately be born by the American people.

To any objective observer, however complex the motivations, it certainly appears that the West is doing everything within its power to agitate the eastern world into World War III — or at a minimum, a catastrophic global economic collapse.

Call you Senators today to demand that these diplomatically suicidal sanctions be blocked.