Vindication at last

So you beat your head against a wall for a while, until one day you wake up and the world now agrees with you.

Today on Juan Cole's site, I read this, and my heart jumped:

The sanctions regime on Iran is not even primarily about the civilian nuclear enrichment program (to which Iran has a right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), but about causing the regime to collapse.

Oh my god - it took years but finally people are starting to get it.

I've been saying for a very long time now, the US sanctions on Iran are not really about nuclear weapons.  The "Iranian nuclear weapons threat" thing is just a pretext - like "WMDs in Iraq". The actual policy is about causing regime change in Iran, not just ending any "nulcear weapons threat" -- and so, logically, no amount of Iranian compromise offers on the nuclear issue will ever suffice. The US does not want the nuclear issue resolved, not without removing the regime as well. This explains why, for years, multiple Iranian compromise offers that would have addressed any REAL concerns about weapons proliferation, were simply ignored or actively undermined by the US.

So please folks, the next time the articles casually claim that the sanctions are attributable to the nuclear program, lets not let that slip into our consciousness through repetition. No, lets assert back, that the sanctions are intended to cause regime change.

Comments

[Tim]

What's wrong with regime change? Because history has shown that such imposed regime changes only lead to more destruction and bloodshed, and hamper the political development of the country, and does not lead to more democracy but less. Israel doesn't want a strong, stable, democratic nation of Iran there - it wants to see Iran as another Jordan, under its thumb.

[nima]

Exactly ^

If we have mutual interests, I don't see the problem. I'd much rather overthrow the regime through sanctions than through war

[Bobby]

But whats wrong with regime change? I dont get it. You say that as if its a bad thing. This regime is corrupt and illegitimate, not to mention dictatorial.