The foreign policy of the Trump administration has made the world much less safe. One area headed for disaster is the Middle East. In his attempt to be the anti-Obama president, Trump has violated the Iran nuclear deal, a hallmark Obama policy, and has increased tensions in the country and the region. The Trump strategy is simple: violate the nuclear agreement, raise sanctions to further cripple the Iran economy, thus creating a desperate situation in Iran that will "justify" American military intervention. The U. S. House of Representatives has recently passed a bill to check Trump's military aggression in Iran, but in many ways, with the increasing of sanctions, which Trump often boasts about, the administration has already declared war on the Iranian people.
In essence, economic sanctions are designed to pressure nations with short-term economic penalties in an attempt to halt aggression or behavior deemed harmful among the community of nations. Ideally, sanctions are used to "convince" governments to behave. However, the U. S. use of sanctions in recent decades have furthered political chaos and have greatly harmed the populations in these countries via economic desperation and insecurity. Consequently, sanctions tend to make bad political situations worse and cause humanitarian crises among a nation's populous.
This result was evident in Iraq leading up to the second Gulf War in 2003. During the 1990s, after the first U. S. invasion, economic sanctions were used to "pressure" the Saddam Hussein regime to comply with U. S. wishes. Instead, the most potent effects of the sanctions were felt not by the regime, but by the Iraqi people. Sanctions disrupted the entire economy, greatly decreasing available sources of income for the Iraqi populace. More importantly the strangulation of the economy had a wider-ranging impact on public services that directly impacted civilians most, including health care, water treatment facilities and electrical grid capacity. Without these services, life expectancy declined in Iraq, and infant mortality and poverty increased dramatically. The Geneva Convention, in its 1977 Protocol, prohibits "economic sieges" against a nation's population as a means of warfare, which is exactly what these sanctions did. (see Global Policy Forum report)
The situation in Iran is becoming increasingly alarming for its people. These sanctions are designed in particular to target the Iranian people, and overwhelming impact is felt by the poor, sick and elderly. This economic warfare is also designed to stifle any economic growth, which impacts young professionals with joblessness and underemployment. This is a population who often tends to be more liberal and open to the West than its government; a population Americans should increasingly be opening up to, instead of alienating.
Any warfare that purposely targets civilians is a violation of basic international law, and is exactly what U. S. policy is currently doing.
