Sanctions as a Weapon, Protests as a Goal
The United States' self-proclaimed role in intentionally engineering a dollar shortage within Iran, leading to economic distress and subsequent protests, is not a 'dirty secret' but a declared policy. This recent admission goes beyond the typical rhetoric of sanctions as deterrence, framing them explicitly as a tool for internal destabilization, directly linking economic strangulation to calls for
regime change. This tactic is a familiar one, echoing historical patterns of economic sabotage against sovereign nations that deviate from imperial dictates. In 1953, the CIA and MI6 orchestrated a coup in Iran, overthrowing democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh after he moved to nationalize the country's oil industry. That intervention, driven by corporate interests,
destabilized the region for decades, much like today's calculated economic pressures aim to incite unrest by inflating consumer prices by 40% and plummeting the value of the Iranian Rial. Such actions expose a remarkable double standard: when Western nations face internal economic challenges, policies are framed as necessary adjustments for stability. Yet, identical economic pressures, when
applied externally by the US to nations like Iran, are lauded as clever strategies to spark 'popular uprisings.' The intent, in both cases, is explicitly to undermine the Iranian government, a strategy pursued for over 45 years through sanctions, assassinations of scientists, and constant threats to the nation's sovereignty. The playbook remains conspicuously consistent, regardless of the façade.