US Sanctions Malevolance/Evilness: Thread

1/ Madeline Albright said that even if the sanctions had killed half a million Iraqi children, "the price is worth it". In their vileness, suffering & death of Zimbabweans is justified @KMutisi @matigary @ChakatsvaMelody @usembassyharare

2/ Sanctions on Zim are an extreme outlier in terms of cost: GDP was stunted. Despite these high costs sanctions failed to yield immediate concessions nor regime change. Instead they increased the staying power of Zanu @kmugova

3/ Sanctions have weakened the Rule of Law: by punishing ordinary mkt activity, they give entrepreneurs a strong incentive to take the criminal route. Sanctions & black mkt activities/crime syndicates go together @Jamwanda2

4/ Sanctions hurt politically weak groups. Politically exposed groups manipulate them to enrich themselves. There is minimal impact on Govt & these politically exposed, but severe effects on general citizenry @vargoe21

5/ Sanctions worsened Rent-Seeking opportunities for Zanu, which created private & excludable goods for its supporters (farm & farm inputs allocations etc), as opposed to public goods for the masses. These policy responses increased the regime grip on power

6/ Sanctions triggered a drop in democracy & human rights scores in Zim. Some civil society activities are viewed suspiciously as US regime change enterprises & heavily crushed. Civil society space has shrunk as a result

7/ These so-called sanctions are too diffuse to be directed at politicians, parastatals etc, without incurring substantial damage on other pvt businesses & NGOs. Businesses cant access international funding & NGO funding has dried up

8/ The sanctions are a worst form of @usembassyharare policy naivite, and the right thing to do is to withdraw them