To the best of my knowledge there has never been any systematic effort on the part of the Congress to review sanctions once imposed, to consider whether they have achieved their objectives or have turned out to be counterproductive. Some 73 nations and over half the world's population are now subject to American sanctions. And the fewest of our allies are following our lead. History has proven that sanctions, when imposed unilaterally, are ineffective, counterproductive and often harmful to America's interests. The fact is, most of our sanctions have had a poor record of success.
Few nations follow our course.
And the people who have been hurt are not the sanctioned countries. The people are the workers in your states. The ones who have lost contracts to build airplanes, and helicopters, and automotive parts, and elevators to competitors in Japan and Europe. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, sanctions very rarely work. Too often, unilateral sanctions are put in place to make us feel better about taking a stand, even if they are empty gestures in the end.