Scott talks to Brian McGlinchey about the realities of America’s economic sanctions, which many believe are a more humane alternative to outright war. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. McGlinchey reminds us that in essence, sanctions mean denying basic goods to a country’s civilians in the hope that their government will give in to our demands. This isn’t substantially different from terrorism, which by definition involves acts of violence against civilians for political purposes. Even the supposed exceptions for things like humanitarian aid often don’t pan out in reality, since these days sanctions are largely enforced through America’s influence over the global financial system, which makes it hard to exercise that level of fine-tuning. The result is that children go hungry, hospitals can’t get basic medicine and families are ruined financially, all for an abstract political goal that has nothing to do with the people affected by the sanctions.

Discussed on the show:

• “Advocates of Economic Sanctions Mirror the Morality of al Qaeda” (Stark Realities)
• “Middle-class Iranians resort to buying rotting produce as U.S. sanctions take toll” (Los Angeles Times)
• “Biden Iran envoy boasted of depriving civilians of food, driving up Iranian inequality in sadistic sanctions manual” (The Grayzone)
• “Menendez is defying Biden over Iran because he owes his political life to Israel lobby and Saban” (Mondoweiss)

Brian McGlinchey is a freelance journalist. He started the 28Pages project in 2014 and now writes at substack. Follow his work there, or on Twitter @LibertyMcG.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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