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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/opinion/23friedman.html
Time for Biting Economic Sanctions on Iran
[New York Times] Thomas L. Friedman - After stealing June's elections, Ahmadinejad's ruling cartel is now more unpopular and illegitimate than ever. As a result, his government can ill afford real biting sanctions that would make life in Iran not only politically miserable but even more economically miserable - and his dictatorial clique even more unpopular. This is a brutal, cynical, corrupt, anti-Semitic regime that exploits the Palestinian cause and deliberately maintains a hostile posture to the West to justify its grip on power. A regime that relates to its own people with such coercive force is not going to be sweet-talked out of its nuclear program. Negotiating with such a regime without the reality of sanctions and the possibility of force is like playing baseball without a bat.