by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 16, 1999
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Washington, DC

Are sanctions ever justified?

I’ve told folks I was out at the “battle of Seattle” for four or five days disguised as a sea turtle. And after it was over, I went down to Portland for a gathering there, and I went down to my favorite bookstore, Powell’s, and got out a book called “The Road To War,” written in 1935, about the run-up to World War I.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 16, 1999
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Washington, DC

After seven years, this administration has yet to find the right formula for dealing with what we now call “the rogue nations.” Five years of bribes to North Korea seem only to have whetted the hermit kingdom’s appetite for more bribes. On the other hand, U.S. sanctions have failed to dislodge or weaken the grip of hostile regimes in Iraq, Iran, Cuba, or Serbia, but have enraged our allies who defy them, and spread resentment against America all over the world. In our desire to punish old enemies, we seem only to be creating new ones. Indeed, sanctions have become the feel-good but ineffectual foreign policy of the self-righteous. Let us consider.