Lawrence Wilkerson, who was Colin Powell’s chief of staff, argues that those who claim we can simply reimpose sanctions are ignoring reality.
“Rejection [of the Iran nuclear deal] means the U.S. is alone. No one else, not even Britain, will follow us. We will be acting entirely unilaterally, without friends or allies (with the exception of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu). And those who claim that we can simply return to sanctions are hopelessly blind to reality. No one will be with us – absolutely no one. The sanctions will be unilateral and even more feckless than they were before diplomacy achieved comprehensive participation in them. We will be the isolated state.”
“In our splendid isolation, if we still find Iran's possession of a nuclear weapon ‘unacceptable,’ as we have declared, then we have two remaining courses of action available: bombing or invasion. Either of these moves will also be carried out alone because no one will follow us except Israel.”
“Bombing … will not accomplish the mission. Every military and intelligence analysis I have read predicts U.S. bombing will produce at most a five to seven year delay in Iran's nuclear program, compel Tehran to make a decision to build a bomb as a deterrent against future attacks and drive their work deeply underground to make it impervious to even bunker-buster bombing in the future.”
“[A]n invasion and occupation will require half a million to a million troops, two to three trillion taxpayer dollars, and probably five years to a decade to accomplish even moderate success in subduing all opposition (think Iraq and think a return to conscription).”
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