Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Worried Just a Bit? Bush Launches Economic 'Shock and Awe' on Iran

Chris Floyd | 27.03.2008 13:02 | Anti-militarism | Terror War | World

Although the "Shock and Awe" doctrine became famous after the Pentagon adopted it for the military invasion of Iraq, the doctrine has always had an economic side too. In fact, the authors of this doctrine believed that the economic ruin visited upon a target nation might be more effective than bombs and bullets – largely because they are more invisible, more politically palatable than big-bang extravaganzas.

In recent days, we've been noting stories indicating a definite "surge" in
the Bush Administration's drive toward war with Iran. First, the Saudi
government revealed [1] - one day after a visit from Dick Cheney - its
urgent plans to deal with "radiations hazards" stemming an attack on Iran's
nuclear power facilities. Then General David Petraeus declared [2] that Iran
was responsible for a major attack on Baghdad's Green Zone, and the main
driver of violence in Iraq generally, laying out, once more, a clear (if
mendacious) casus belli for striking at Iran.

Now financial analyst John McGlynn reveals [3] that the Administration has
quietly launched a "shock and awe" attack on the Iranian economy, using
little-known - and little-understood - financial weapons provided by the
Patriot Act to begin "the complete financial and economic destruction of
Iran," as McGlynn puts it, with the ultimate goal of turning the nation into
"another Gaza or Iraq under the economic sanctions of the 1990s, with
devastating impact on the economy and society."

McGlynn's article, in Japan Focus, is long and complex - necessarily so, in
order to detail the intricate punitive mechanisms involved, and their
earlier test run against North Korea in 2005. You should read the article in
full [3] , but to put it briefly, last week the U.S. Treasury Department's
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), set in motion a process that
could make any bank or financial institution in the world that does business
with Iran subject to an economic death sentence: complete exclusion from the
U.S. financial system. McGlynn, speaking plainly and with no addition, calls
the move "a declaration of war on Iran."

The move is part of a steady escalation that has seen Washington move from
urging sanctions against any firm or bank connected to Iran's nuclear
program to its current, highly belligerent stance: seeking to strangle all
financial investment or dealing with Iran, nuclear-related or not. As
McGlynn notes:

During a daily press meeting with reporters on March 19, the State
Department's spokesperson was asked about a deal recently signed between
Switzerland and Iran to supply Iranian natural gas to Europe. After
condemning the deal, the spokesperson explained that the US is opposed to
any "investing in Iran, not only in its petroleum or natural gas area but in
any sector of its economy."

All of this, McGlynn says, is an extension of the "Shock and Awe" doctrine
formulated by Harlan Ullman and James Wade for the National Defense
University in 1995. The strategy became famous after the Pentagon adopted it
for the military invasion of Iraq - but as McGlynn points out, the doctrine
has always had an economic side too. In fact, the authors believed that the
economic ruin visited upon a target nation might be more effective than
bombs and bullets - largely because they are more invisible, more
politically palatable than big-bang extravaganzas. McGlynn notes:

But Shock and Awe's authors (apparently with something like Vietnam or the
1993-1994 Somalia fiasco in mind) also envisioned that "[i]n certain
circumstances, the costs of having to resort to lethal force may be too
politically expensive in terms of local support as well as support in the
U.S. and internationally." Consequently, they wrote:

"Economic sanctions are likely to continue to be a preferable political
alternative or a necessary political prelude to an offensive military
step... In a world in which nonlethal sanctions are a political imperative,
we will continue to need the ability to shut down all commerce into and out
of any country from shipping, air, rail, and roads. We ought to be able to
do this in a much more thorough, decisive, and shocking way than we have in
the past... Weapons that shock and awe, stun and paralyze, but do not kill
in significant numbers may be the only ones that are politically acceptable
in the future."

It was only a matter of finding a sanctions strategy systematic enough to
make this more obscure portion of the Shock and Awe doctrine operational.
What Ullman and Wade could not have imagined was that Washington's global
planners would use extraterritorial legal powers and its financial clout to
coerce the global banking industry into accepting US foreign policy diktat.

McGlynn notes that even the Chinese - Iran's biggest trading partner - is
feeling the heat from the Patriot Act's "nuclear option" of banishment from
the U.S. financial system:

In December 2007 ArabianBusiness.com reported that Chinese banks were
starting to decline to open letters of credit for Iranian traders. Asadollah
Asgaroladi, head of the Iran-China chamber of commerce, was quoted as saying
that China's banks did not explain the refusal but "if this trend continues
it will harm the two countries' economic cooperation and trade exchange." In
February, ArabianBusiness.com found that China's cutbacks in its banking
business with Iran was affecting a joint automobile production arrangement.

Now the screws are growing even tighter. And the effects will be devastating
- not to the leaders of Iran, of course, but, as with the genocidal
sanctions against Iraq, to Iran's general population - a population, as we
noted recently [4] , made up overwhelmingly of young people and children:
almost 70 percent of Iranians are under 30. As McGlynn puts it:

If the US succeeds, an international quarantine on Iran's banks would
disrupt Iran's financial linkages with the world by blocking its ability to
process cross-border payments for goods and services exported and imported.
Without those linkages, Iran is unlikely to be able to engage in global
trade and commerce. As 30% of Iran's GDP in 2005 was imports of goods and
services and 20% was non-oil exports, a large chunk of Iran's economy would
shrivel up. The repercussions will be painful and extend well beyond lost
business and profits. For example, treating curable illnesses will become
difficult. According to an Iranian health ministry official, Iran produces
95% of its own medicines but most pharmaceutical-related raw materials are
imported.

The American people are told nothing about this, of course. The presidential
candidates will say nothing about it - or about any of the other flashing
danger signals as we careen toward another murderous catastrophe. The
"progressive" movement, now consumed with the minutiae of the squabble
between Clinton and Obama - both of whom have repeatedly declared their
bellicosity toward Iran, and their fierce insistence that all options,
including the use of nuclear weapons, remain "on the table" - will no doubt
continue its long inaction and avoidance of the subject, as Arthur Silber
notes [5] so powerfully here, while also providing active, practical steps
that could be taken to head off another war -- something no one else is
bothering to do.

We'll let Silber have the last word here:

So what is your choice? Do the world -- and your life, and the lives of
those you love -- mean so little to you, that you will risk losing them all?
Is that what you want? Do you still choose to do nothing?

Do you?

***


[1]  http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1463/135/
[2]  http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1464/135/
[3]  http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2707
[4]  http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1459/135/
[5]  http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2008/03/thus-you-lose-world-what-fuck-is-wrong.html

Chris Floyd
- Homepage: http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1465/135/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech