In 1918 immediately after WW I, former President Theodore Roosevelt put it plainly: “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country….”
Roosevelt further opined “In either event it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth — whether about the President or about anyone else.”
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As if in direct response to a military stalemate with Iran, President Trump remains unable to extricate himself from an unprovoked war of aggression he himself initiated at Israel’s urging.
With the approach of mid term elections, the President’s level of despair at falling opinion polls is evident with the Administration’s initiation of a new round of secondary sanctions on Iran.
As Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent announced, “We are launching an economic offensive against Iran’s financial ties around the world. Our goal is to cut off all economic channels that support this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.”
Bessent labeled Economic DDay against Iran as its “most comprehensive assault on Iran’s economy” in order to economically and politically isolate Iran.
Under “Operation Economic Outcast,” Bessent threatened those nations or businesses which failed to respond, citing that more than sixty entities that support Iran economically will be sanctioned if they continue to conduct business with Iran.
The US Department of State announced a reward of $10 Million for information leading to key IRGC Leaders – presumably identifying their death warrants.
Further, those resist cooperation risk losing access to the American financial system or will face “significant financial repercussions”.
Bessent reported that President Donald Trump was personally calling foreign leaders with “specific requests” to establish a deadline to cut its economic ties with Iran.
Bessent indicated that officials from the US State Department and Pentagon are also lobbying their contacts for ‘immediate action’ with a specific deadline suggesting that “Iran faces a clear choice of complete isolation on a subsistence economy or back to normalcy to rejoin the global economy”.
The truth is the US spouts empty words as it has no intention of allowing Iran to ‘rejoin the global economy’ as it has thwarted Iran from joining the global economy for the last 47 years when President Jimmy Carter began US sanctions against Iran in 1979.
Clearly, the Trump Administration’s Operation Economic Outcast means just that; an “unprecedented campaign to sever every remaining economic lifeline sustaining the Islamic Republic of Iran” and that “our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.”
How exactly Bessent or the President expect secondary sanctions on Iran to end the war was not apparent.
It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that since Trump has not found a convenient exit from the Iran war, the President is now hyper-anxious to find resolution since the US is “extremely low“on its missiles and supply of drones to continue the war.
Bessent said that “quiet diplomacy” would warn Iranian trade partners of the consequences for continuing to trade with Tehran. “Any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the U.S. dollar system,”
“Trump is stuck in a war he can’t win and he can’t get out of,” Ali Akbar Dareini, an analyst at the Center for Strategic Studies in Tehran told Al Jazeera.
In the face of a potential mid term political election disaster with declining approval numbers, therein lies an essential life lesson for President Trump: to be willing to accept reality that the US has no authority over the SoH, that Iran has effectively ‘won’ the war and it is time for the President to resist any further misguided military adventures.
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One nation considered an ‘enabler’ conducting business with Iran is China which has announced it will not agree to sanctions Iran. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to imagine Trump personally calling President Xi to make such a “request.”
In response, China called “on all relevant parties to take responsible measures and resolve the problem through political and diplomatic means.”
Bessent responded to China to “get with the programme.”
Further, Foreign agency spokesman Lin Jian said “China opposes illegal unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law and are not authorised by the UN Security Council.” It may be expected that with China articulating public opposition to the US sanction plan, other target nations may also defer participation.
Bessent announced that “Iran has murdered and maimed more Americans and service members than any other terrorist regime on earth and they have been at war with America for 47 years.”
Bessent has repeatedly made unfound assertions about Iranian attacks on Americans remains unable to provide specifics which raises the question whether a better use of the Secretary of the Treasury would be formulating a viable agenda to address the US $40 Trillion debt and its $1 trillion annual deficit.
Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, dismissed Trump’s latest threats of economic sanctions, calling it a “diversion from America’s own crisis: unprecedented debt and surging interest costs.”