The Peace Report: Sanctions Kill

Infograph at SanctionsKill.org

In a speech uploaded to The Peace Report, Sanctions Kill and innocent people are suffering under horrendous sanctions imposed against enemy nations such as Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

Sanctions Kill is a movement and petition sponsored by the International Action Center (IAC). It drew international attention to the economic sanctions and blockades enacted at the dawn of the Iraq war twenty-five years ago.

Sanctions Kill believes that sanctions are used as silent deadly weapons of mass destruction. Even before bombing in Iraq there were a number of civilian casualties:

At that time, these sanctions caused the death of more than half a million children in Iraq within the first five years.

Today sanctions are the United States’ first choice for silent deadly weapons of mass destruction against enemy nations around the world. In fact, trade sanctions have increased in their intensity, sophistication, and duration.

Small nations such as Cuba, Palestine, Haiti, and Zimbabwe are included as well as giant countries such as Russia, Iran, and China.

Speaking before the Workers World Party (WWP), IAC leader Sarah Flounders lectured in July 2019 on how effective sanctions are as the prelude to full-fledged military intervention. Here are noted salient points:

1. Sanctions is economic warfare, even if most Americans don’t hear or understand the impacts. The U.S. hegemony stands with its transnational corporations and global military industrial complex in wanting to weaken and reconquer the governments that defy capitalist economic control.

2. Sanctions exacerbate the peace process. They curtail diplomacy as historically demonstrated in countries such as in the DPRK, Syria, or Gaza. Punitive measures instill defiance and hostility towards the host nations. Furthermore as regional trade is disrupted and supply pipelines are choked off, there are far-reaching effects in civilian affairs.

3. Sanctions fuel violence, tension, and suffering. As the currency is destabilized and there is hyperinflation, people suffer the want of basic toiletries, food commodities, and household necessities. “It is designed to cause tension and frustration in every home” according to the IAC spokesperson.

In every country, the poorest and the weakest — infants, children, the chronically ill and the elderly — suffer the worst impacts of sanctions. — Sanctions Kill

Author and lecturer Sarah Flounders recounts the social and political upheaval accompanying the lead up to the bombing of Iraq as an outcome of sanctions. The re-engineering of society is leveraged to encourage internal political strife, internecine battles, weakening of the central government, and dismemberment of social welfare systems.

According to Venezuelanalysis, the number of official deaths related to sanctions as of several months ago was 40,000 from Venezuelans deprived of needed medicines, operations, hospital care, hunger, or disease. These sanctions are also accompanied by sabotage to power plants and gas lines. Few of the stories of inflicted civilian suffering make the U.S. news, however, Venezuelanalysis recently published an investigative report including video entitled “Sanctions: War by Other Means.”

Sanctions used against Syria since 2004 weakened the vitality of the government and opened the floodgate of afflicted refugees internally, then globally as terrorist bombing, looting, and attacks followed. This model is being exported for unseating millions in up to 30 developing nations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Often the international actors enforce trade embargoes because the big banks control offshore financial institutions and mega-corporations buy-out local politicians in exchange for war profiteering opportunities.

4. Sanctions enable human exploitation and human trafficking as civilians no longer live in stable neighborhoods and possess gainful employment. National armies are prone to corruption and enabling disaster capitalism. Civilized culture is replaced with cultures worshiping violence, sexual depravity, addictive drugs, and armaments.

Sadly, many observers realize that western media blames societal breakdowns, mass unemployment, and currency destabilization on incumbent enemy country leaders, rather than as a result of trade blockades. The media’s propaganda supports the necessity of regime change and paints the U.S. as a democratic “savior” waiting in the wings for its shock-and-awe entrance.

Sanctions Kill hopes to awaken the populace especially in the U.S. to the realities of sanctions as bona-fide war. People can help by petitioning our politicians to ease up on needed sanctioned medicines and supplies. Grassroots peace activists and charitable organizations have — sometimes at great risk — stood in solidarity with innocent civilians and guided them in constructing alternatives plans for survival. Political activists such as at Sanctions Kill also point out the fundamental illegality of sanctions according to the U.N. convention and charter of human rights.

The Peace Report’s Youtube.com channel uploaded both the SanctionsKill.org’s “how” speech and “why” speech segments, and are worth your education.

Visit SanctionsKill.org to learn more and take action.