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Can ‘The West’ Admit that Sanctions Are an Own Goal?
Policymakers need to analyze the effects before, during, and after then make adjustments — It’s time to widen the debate
Once the government policy train gets moving, it can be impossible to slow down, adjust course, or bring to a stop. The never-ending escalations of the criminal justice system, corporate corruption in government, and war profiteering by the military-industrial complex show the phenomenon well. Everything only ratchets in one direction. Sure, we were spending three hundred million dollars a day in Afghanistan, but we were routinely told, for twenty freaking years, how close we were to finally winning.
We’re seeing the same thing with sanctions due to the Ukraine invasion. We were told — and short-sighted ideologically driven neocons in Washington hoped — sanctions would cripple the Russian economy, turn the ruble into rubble, the people would rise up, and Putin would be out in no time. None of that happened.
We’re still being told it’s only a matter of time as corporations pull out and Western governments escalate the measures to encompass more Russian goods.
Meanwhile, America is seeing forty-year-high inflation, the UK has a cost of living crisis, the EU is getting slammed even…
