Embargo: a double-edged sword
Reader comment on item: Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey into Revolutionary Iran

Submitted by Bruno (Italy), Sep 15, 2004 at 08:58

I see the embargo as a weapon in the hands of the mullahs. They could blame it for their economical failures.

I know that in such matters balance is ever delicate.

Surely educated Iranians may realize that the U.S.is not embargoing Iran for meanness, but less educated ones are likely to perceive it as an argument in favor of the ayatollah's position on the U.S. sand its supposed inherent evilness towards the Iranian people.

By the way the mullahs enjoy real power, so they do not feel the heat of it: unpriviledged population feels it, and the less educated ones are likely to swallow Ayatollahs' rude theories about U.S.

Any commercial contact with foreigners could help the population improve their psychological relationship with us; they could experience firsthand the lack of danger inherent in our way of being.

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