U.S. Says Iraqis Are Helping Iran to Skirt Sanctions

The New York Times:

When President Obama announced last month that he was barring a Baghdad bank from any dealings with the American banking system, it was a rare acknowledgment of a delicate problem facing the administration in a country that American troops just left: for months, Iraq has been helping Iran skirt economic sanctions imposed on Tehran because of its nuclear program.

Read the whole story at The New York Times

Comments

[checkmoot]

11:04 AM on 08/20/2012

The Iraq/Iran war, over a million dead killed, fought under Saddam and instigated by the U.S., the U.S. sanctions agaimst Iraq, thousands dead, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, tens of thousands dead, the sanctions against Iran and our impending arttack on Iran that will result in how many dead Iranians ? No wonder that these two neighboring countries, both victims of our military empire, find common cause and friendship. Give them a break. Do we have to rule the world ?

[Brown Buddha]

08:22 AM on 08/20/2012

After $860,000,000,000 (that's billions to you fiscal conservatives) later and thousands if not millions of victims later, efforts by Bush, Cheney, et al have turned once bitter foes into Sanctions buddies. Mission Accomplished.

[danceswithdata]

12:29 PM on 08/20/2012

$860 billion? I clearly remember the day when the Axis of Evil - Bush, Cheney, Rice Rove and Rummy promised faithfully that the Iraqi invasion would only cost us a measly $84 billion. Turned out to be more than ten times that much! Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of innocents who were murdered in the process. But, as Mr Brown Buddha astutely points out - Mission Accomplished! And that's what's important, right?

[edander]

05:45 AM on 08/20/2012

Just left? I thought the US was still occupying them spreading freedom and democracy.

[vascopyjama]

12:18 AM on 08/20/2012

Mission accomplished. What a joke. Looks more like the Iranians accomplished that mission.

[rissole]

09:50 PM on 08/19/2012

You have to love it. Over four thousand American lives lost, God only know how many Iraqi lives lost and Iran gets to run Iraq. Thanks George, Thanks Dick, Thanks Rummy and Condi.

[danceswithdata]

12:31 PM on 08/20/2012

rissole - don't forget the most dangerous of the serpents you already listed - our good friend Karl Rove, who at that time was hiding out in the grass, waiting...but still working tirelessly toward the goals of the others.

[Brown Buddha]

09:11 PM on 08/19/2012

1,000,000 Iraquis killed/injured
$806,000,000,000 spent so far
4488 US Killed
100000 US injured
0 WMD
0 Ties to 911
Former Foes now sanction buddies = Priceless
Somethings in life can't be defined by logic. Thanks Republicans.
MIssion Accomplished.

[RomeoMD25]

08:52 PM on 08/19/2012

The ones who have been and are doing the most destabilizing in the middle east in the last 65 yrs. have been the governments of U.K. and U.S. (Iran has not started a war in over 3 centuries)
Under the Nuclear-Non Proliferation Treaty Iran is allowed to have a nuclear program for energy and medical purposes. Iran, is a signatory to the NNPT and allows IAEA inspections of their facilities. Iran has UN/IAEA cameras in their facilities.

[7alab]

08:49 PM on 08/19/2012

Shock & owed? In the summer of 2003, Instead of promoting and supporting moderate forces, such as those calling for inclusion, tolerance and consensus, Bush midgets advocated middle ages styled "divide and concur" policy in newly occupied Iraq. I was watching in pain those criminal minds attacking even the concept of "nation building" and treating it as a dirty word on Fox news. Ultimatly and in actual practice, "nation building" was replaced with "nation destruction". Religious begots were ultimately installed in leadership positions such as Chalabi, AlHakim and Alsader. Chickens are coming back home to roost. Trillions of dollars and thousand of lives are not just total waste but rather did more harm than good for the US.

[Thomas Patrick Sullivan]

06:36 PM on 08/19/2012

In an earlier post I listed the most prominent politicians and their minions responsible for the US invasion or Iraq—“shock and Awe”. Here again are the planners and architects of that disastrous decision:

***
Paul Wolfowitz - Douclas Feith - William Luti - Stephen Hadley - Richard Perle - Elliot Abrams - Scooter Libby - John Hannah - David Wurmser - Andrew Natsios - Dan Bartlett - Mitch Daniels - George Tenet - Colin Powell - Donald Rumsfeld - Condoleezza Rice – Dick Cheney
***

President George W. Bush was the public face, “Straw Man” if you will.

– fapescia – observed,
“How about Dan Senor? He was Paul Bremer's right hand man. He is now Romney's senior advisor.”

Dan Senor is an energetic "worker bee" not a part of the original PNAC committee.
Ultra pro-Israel. Treats Arabs as detritus to be trampled for the "greater good of protecting Israel”.

Dan Senor recently “Tweeted”: “Mitt-Bibi will be the new Reagan-Thatcher”; meaning an enthusiasm for war with Iran. Bibi is the nickname for Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. I suspect he's more loyal to the Israelis than to the US.

Mitt Romney and Dan Senor are both very dangerous warmongers, banging the drums for yet another war.

Are we that crazy to vote for Romney - Ryan? I sincerely hope not.

Obama 2012

[Bluesman0503]

06:33 PM on 08/19/2012

Thanks to the Bush administration Iraq and Iran are headed toward a consolidation that the government and military could have prevented had we left them in place. Once we’re totally withdrawn except for the embassy and the troops left behind to provide security and “training” the amalgamation will accelerate and conclude.

The Taliban are also on the rise and the challenge there will be to bring American troops and equipment out without escalating losses of both. Once again when we leave the jig will be up, and the Taliban will be in charge. We have wasted thousands of lives, wounded hundreds of thousands and lost trillions of dollars all for naught strategically.

Had we stayed in Afghanistan only long enough to kill Bin Laden at Toro Boro we would have been better off. The incongruence is that there were people who not only knew all this before we pulled the trigger, but were vocal about it. They had to face accusations of being unpatriotic and lacking critical and strategic thinking skills.

Once Bush and Cheney had the lobbyist on board it was a foregone conclusion. The cost of war does not infringe on the profits of those who manufacture and sell the means. Their children and the children of the politicians they buy to support their blood lust do not participate in the carnage. For them, it is a highly profitable business, and we will always have one or two bubbling up somewhere on the planet.

[gbtusa]

06:03 PM on 08/19/2012

biting the hand that fed you?

[piul05]

06:34 PM on 08/19/2012

FED???!!!"

***wipe copious tears of laughter**

[gbtusa]

08:35 PM on 08/19/2012

yeh, fed!

takers will not remember if they don't have scruples. I guess Saddam knew how to keep them in their place.

[any mouse]

06:46 PM on 08/19/2012

How about the hand that beat you black and blue.

The US is getting the pay back it deserves.

[gbtusa]

08:31 PM on 08/19/2012

my comment applies to you too, not just the ungreatful Shias.

[MSaxe]

05:47 PM on 08/19/2012

Anyone surprised this is the net result of the Bush Doctrine? What did you think would happen if you took Iraq back to the stone age, remove their government, and allow their Shiite majority to rule?

Neocons are power monger, oil loving, idiots. Just how much did gas prices change over Bush's two terms? $1.25 to $4.50, with a brief ending respite due to the drop in demand only caused by a financial meltdown... also the result of their policies.

And there are people still thinking of voting in the GOP. Get real.

[MachCrit]

06:20 PM on 08/19/2012

Bush Doctrine?

In what respect, Charlie?

(Can you imagine that nimrod, a heartbeat away from the nuclear football?).

Fanned, MSaxe.

[MSaxe]

07:37 PM on 08/19/2012

Bush Doctrine = Preemptive attack on countries committing or harboring terrorists.

[robertstone1robert]

05:09 PM on 08/19/2012

The blood that was shed over there and the money was a complete waste. I hope we're not giving Maliki as much as a penny more. It seems the Iranians promised survival. It is a cesspool like Afghanistan. This is a job for our drones, not our guys.

[Thomas Patrick Sullivan]

11:18 PM on 08/19/2012

After everything said about the absolute unmitigated violence and disaster we visited on these people and their infrastructure, you're advocating more violence? Get real.

How would you feel if there was drone attack in your neighborhood, huh?

P S There was no cesspool before "Shock and Awe" and before we invaded Afghanistan.

[robertstone1robert]

09:36 AM on 08/20/2012

You're living in Never-Never Land, in a utopia of your own choosing. But it's not. You're part of the hate America crowd. Mention one country that would accommodate your ravings as we do.

[edander]

05:50 AM on 08/20/2012

Instead of send in the clowns..its send in the drones...To terrorize and slaughter innocent people who may be near suspected Al Queda leaders.

[robertstone1robert]

09:40 AM on 08/20/2012

Only somebody with the hate America mentality would find Americans getting killed funny. You are very sick. Tell me one country that your right to mouth idiocies is so well protected.

[jamsb3]

04:55 PM on 08/19/2012

This is what democracy, realpolitick, and capitalism look like. Uncle Sam has a problem with all three when he can't call the shots.

Every Congressmen and President is eager to talk about our "special relationship" with Israel but when the two most powerful Shia states (Needless to say the Shia in Iraq can thank America for freeing them from Sadaam and the Sunni minority.) decide to help one another something is wrong.

America is clueless in the Middle East.

[WHYOHWHY]

05:35 PM on 08/19/2012

Yeah. I think all this Sunni and Shia stuff went over Dubya's head. Two thirds of Iraq is Shia and they end up calling the shots - what a surprise.

[dmgoss]

03:44 PM on 08/19/2012

Ugh, no comment. Neocons just make it too easy to throw rocks at their pitiful paranoid ideology and its painful outcome.