RCP contributor Richard Porter comments on the administration’s threat to enact an “economic D-Day” on Iran, Monday on the RealClearPolitics podcast “Let’s just say, I wish the president would speak softly and swing a big stick,” he said, “There have been way too many rhetorical flourishes. ” “Although we’ve had very strict sanctions in the past, we’ve had them now for quite some time,” he said, “There’s been a lot of leakage that the United States turned a blind eye to through Dubai … And, of course, they do have trade through the Caspian Sea back up into Russia.” “Even accounting for his blunderbuss rhetorical style, I thought ‘economic D-Day’ was unfortunate … It’s like the reverse of the Marshall Plan, not D-Day,” Carl Cannon said. “Either way, I think it’s risky to wage war by threatening to starve people.” “A little bit like Iran’s use of the Strait of Hormuz, we can only use the dollar and the dollar-based economic system so many times to try to affect change in other countries before other countries start saying, You know what? We really can’t live in a dollar-based society because it’s going to be used against us,” Porter commented. “That’s one of the things that concerns me: Do we ultimately undermine the dollar, which is the greatest asset the United States has, by relying solely on dollar and dollar-based mechanisms for trade in order to affect change in other countries?” “I think the president’s been smart not putting troops on the ground,” he said. “But I wish we could find other means instead of just relying on the dollar-based economic system.”
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