IT WON'T WORK MR. GATES

Defense Sec. Gates: Sanctions Will Get Iran to Negotiate

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that economic sanctions would be more effective than diplomatic overtures in bringing Iran to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.

"Perhaps if there is enough economic pressure placed on Iran, diplomacy can provide them an open door through which they can walk if they choose to change their policies," Gates said on Fox News Sunday.

That's a mighty big "if."

The problem, Mr. Gates, is you will NEVER get China and Russia to cooperate in having the kind of sanctions that you would need to accomplish that which you want to acccomplish.

As George Friedman, analyst for STRATFOR , writes:

First, the sanctions don’t work very well. Sanctions only work when most powers are prepared to comply with them. Neither the Russians nor the Chinese are prepared to systematically comply with sanctions, so there is little that Iran can afford that it can’t get. Iran’s problem is that it cannot afford much. Its economy is in shambles due more to internal problems than to sanctions.