This writer had some State Department officials tell him the same thing back in 1991, so we have an idea where this nonsense is coming from. Of course, not. We hit Iraq with the sanctions, in part, we were told, because Saddam was killing the Kurds. But we looked the other way when the Turkish government killed a lot more Kurds than Saddam. Indonesia and East Timor.
Sanctions are genocide, pure and simple.
And the people who advocate sanctions as a part of a foreign policy should be among the first to be charged with genocide and hauled off to the Hague, or whatever other World Court which prosecutes crimes against humanity. Sanctions are like burning down a forest to kill a deer. Except that they kill people, not wild game. Which makes certain nations fair game for our racist government. No wonder that all across the world, American flags were burnt again last week.