Republican Hypocrisy, a Tenfold Increase in Exports to Iran

Sometimes it is hard to believe the level of hypocrisy practiced by Senator John McCain and his Republican allies when it comes to their lack of commitment to strengthening and enforcing sanctions against Iran. Today, Sharon Theimer of the Associated Press reported that, "U.S. exports to Iran -- including brassieres, bull semen, cosmetics and possibly even weapons -- grew more than tenfold during President Bush's years in office even as he accused Iran of nuclear ambitions and helping terrorists."

Despite allowing more than a tenfold increase in trade with Iran, McCain and the Republicans continue to attack Senator Barack Obama for supposedly being insufficiently tough on Iran - we at the National Jewish Democratic Council have had enough. While Republicans play a shameless political game to dupe the American people, they cannot explain the hundreds of millions of dollars that Republicans have allowed to be exported to Iran since Bush first took office in 2001.

The United States sent Iran $546 million in goods from 2001 through last year, government figures show. It exported roughly $146 million worth last year, compared with $8.3 million in 2001, Bush's first year in office. Even adjusted for inflation, that is more than a tenfold increase. (Theimer, Associated Press, 4/8/08)

No only did these exports include military rifles, rifle parts, aircraft, aircraft parts, and other items that can be used for military use, they may have been sold at a deep discount.

[M]ilitary items can sell for pennies on the dollar compared with what the Pentagon paid. Last year, federal agents seized four F-14 fighter jets sold to domestic buyers by an officer at Point Mugu Naval Air Station, Calif., for $2,000 to $4,000 each, with proceeds benefiting a squadron recreation fund. When F-14s were new, they cost roughly $38 million each. (Theimer, Associated Press, 4/8/08)

These numbers are not only disturbing because we are avoiding our own sanctions against Iran, but also because we have Republican leadership who are so willing to mislead the American people by attacking Obama for being weak on Iran.

McCain and his Republican allies have a lot to answer for concerning Iran. They can start by explaining this tenfold increase in exports to Iran and McCain's vote on S.Amdt. 1351 to S. 1042 (for more details on this amendment take a look at "McCain, Iran, and the Jewish Vote").

Follow Aaron Keyak on Twitter: www.twitter.com/akeyak

Comments

[HallStyle]

I am not really in favor of sanctions on Iran but I want to point out this administrations hypocrosy on this issue. When it comes to the "Axis of Evil" bush doesn't really have a winning strategy. Take North Korea for instance. We have placed sanctions on them for years, there people are starving and there economy is in the tank. Some how the managed over the years to make a few Nuclear bombs. How did this happen? Lets take Iran for Instance. We have had sanctions on them for years. Yet they still are enriching uranium and even though they say it is for peaceful cause there is still a possiblity that they could have a nuclear weapon pretty soon. The answer is diplomacy. I know to you NeoCons that diplomacy is a dirty word but we need to try it out. Since we decided to talk to North Korea they have made huge strides on ending there nuclear program. Diplomacy is what works not sanctions!!!!!!!!

[cheshirecat831]

Reeps are addicted to creating chaos and hypocrisy is mother's milk to them. Actually that particular party may go extinct. And who will grieve? No one.

[UnbiasView]

As opposed to the Democrats that create . . . .

They are all a bunch of gangsters on both sides of the aisle, the sooner you learn that the happier you'll be and the less disappointed you'll be.

[hopeless277]

Thanks to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, it's none of our business what THE government does. They are not beholden to us and consider us a hinderance to their imperial plans. So we just sit and watch as they give away our rights to the Unitary Executive with the full support of the presumed Democratic nominee. We are no more that slaves to THE government. They will tell us what they want and we shall deliver up our children to be slaughtered in the Quest for Oil. This country is no more than a banana republic being run by a spoiled frat boy and his henchmen. In January we will be ruled by a power-mad Senator who believes that god will solve all our problems if we just clap harder. This country is over.

[4real]

So I guess to justify a war you have to arm the other side first then say HEY! they have weapons, ATTACK!!

Will we here about this from the MSM. If the dems were responsible for this the repugs would be screaming that they are arming the terrorists.

This administration has no shame. Disgusting.

[jdbid1]

And how much bull semen did the Republicans contribute?

[Hoelder]

Anybody surprised? Not really, because all schemes combined it is about making your comrades richer even if you swipe national security aside. This is the era of making the richer so much richer until the building collapses under the weight of lies and deceit and then leave the victims - the American people - to fend for themselves. I heard that Dubai is pretty in the spring.

[Insideout143]

Let's face it. At least half of the dem's in congress are in the same bed with the repub's and all of the corporations they are boosting profits for. It's time to clean house! It's all about money and power.

[Grunty1]

Republicans have been busy financing the OTHER side of their next invasion of greed.

[nirek]

hippocrites

[Voltage]

Calling rethugs Hippocrates is the same as calling rain wet. It's true, and neither cares a whit that you're revealing what they really are.

[BookDesigner]

What does an old Greek doctor (really old, he died almost 400 years B.C.) have to do with either wet rain or Republicans?

[thepeoplechoose]

The truth behind republican measures to reduce taxes is that by having increased the debt to stratospheric levels republicans have in fact created a huge financial burden that will be borne by future Americans. All that has been done is forego taxes that will inevitably come due. The accrued debt is nothing less than a tax levied upon as yet unborn Americans. How's that for a scam? When you contrast this with the global increase in the numbers of millionaires which had a healthy double digit rate increase as of 2006, you begin to see a pattern that informs us of where all the money is going. According to figues from the U.S. government and from private sector financial analysts, income as a percentage of earnings in the U.S. has consistently increased for the top 50% and decreased for the bottom 50%. This is in no small measure attributable to the scheme of taxation.

[JohnPaulJones]

Right on! And both McCain and St. Obama are going to raise taxes and stick us with even more debt. I'm glad to see us selling goods to Iran, despite all the rhetoric. Sanctions never hurt the intended targets (Saddam, Mugabe - anyone?) so I guess GruffPosters, the question is: would you rather have trading with Iran or war with Iran?

[Vinca]

To Chillinout: The American people can see through this admin's schemes, talking about sanctions against Iran , and all the while selling them military gear, all the while hoping for an excuse to invade them, it makes me sick

[Insideout143]

Yeah, then they'll send all of us peons to fight the wars they start so they can keep raking in the dough.

[GKJames]

True, but isn't it the sine qua non of Republicanism to be a hypocrite? More substantively, doesn't this show the idiocy of the sanctions regime? The obsession with Iran -- yet one more neocon geopolitical wetdream with not a little encouragement from Israel -- is irrational and will prove to be counterproductive.

[nyboomer]

If you study political science you know the name of the system where a government is run for the benefit of corporations and not for the benefit of the citizenry at large. The clue for today is that it is neither a Democracy nor a Representative Republic.

[boing007]

nyboomer

If you study political science you know the name of the system where a government is run for the benefit of corporations and not for the benefit of the citizenry at large. The clue for today is that it is neither a Democracy nor a Representative Republic.

It's Fascism. Read Bertram Grosz's 'Friendly Fascism'.

[deke33]

If most Republican's lips are moving, then they are lying. From Nixon's "This President is not a crook" to Reagan's smaller government where our national debt increased, I believe, to a Trillion for the first time to Bush I's "Read my lips" to GW and Cheney's "We have solid evidence of Iraq's wmds". Some may have forgotten the dummy offshore company Haliburton created when Cheney was CEO that continued to do business with Iran even though there were sanctions instituted.

[DRaymond]

The dollar is weak and they are awash in petrodollars. Is anybody surprised?