🕷️ Crawler Inspector

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1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 139 (from laksa091)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa139.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://theweek.com/afghanistan-war/1008876/how-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://theweek.com/afghanistan-war/1008876/how-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/theweek.com\/afghanistan-war\/1008876\/how-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine","crawl_time":1774795798,"first_indexed_time":1641984736,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,theweek!\/afghanistan-war\/1008876\/how-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine s443","src_root_hash":"5471547289642633339","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"How U.S. sanctions are driving Afghanistan to famine | The Week","meta_descriptions":["American sanctions almost never achieve their stated goals, but they do harm innocent civilians"],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"Afghanistan is\nstarving\n. The country's economy has collapsed, a bitter winter has taken hold, and half the population doesn't have enough to eat. Already many have died — and it could get much, much worse. UNICEF estimates\n1 million children could perish\nover the next few months without sufficient humanitarian aid, roughly four times the number of\ndeaths\ncaused by the entire 20-year American occupation.\nThe approaching famine is not only a fluke of bad weather or poor agriculture. It is being caused by the United States' economic sanctions against the Taliban, which now rules Afghanistan. Despite the recent announcement of another round of\nhumanitarian aid\nfor Afghanistan, the bulk of U.S. sanctions will remain. They're the latest example of America's brainless addiction to punitive sanctions regimes that virtually never achieve the desired effect and too often inflict pointless suffering on innocents.\nArticle continues below\nThe Week\nEscape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.\nSUBSCRIBE & SAVE\nSign up for The Week's Free Newsletters\nFrom our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.\nFrom our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.\nLatest Videos From The Week\nAnd Washington's position is so irrational there's no sign the Taliban could do anything to relieve U.S. pressure. The group could crown President Biden king and that probably wouldn't do it. Even more aid won't negate U.S. policy here. It's just one more failure to add to our list of\nsanctions disasters\n.\nU.S. sanctions have done nothing, for example, to get\nIran\nto stop working on a nuclear weapon — on the contrary, what actually helped was the nuclear deal negotiated under former President\nBarack Obama\n. When former President\nDonald Trump\nunilaterally went back on America's word and reimposed sanctions for no reason, Iran logically\nreturned to nuclear development\n. It's an open question whether Tehran can be convinced to trust American good faith again.\nSanctions equally haven't convinced Russian President\nVladimir Putin\nto stop being an aggressive warmonger who interferes with elections in Western countries — on the contrary, he's currently\nthreatening to annex Ukraine\n.\nAnd sanctions\nhaven't destabilized the North Korean dictatorship\n, nor have they ousted\nVenezuela's Nicolas Maduro\n, nor have they achieved any major U.S. policy goal in this century.\nA free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com\nNow, some of the ineffectiveness of American sanctions likely has to do more with execution than concept — especially because they're notoriously impossible to remove. Indeed, many\nRussia\nexperts\nsuspect\none reason Putin is being so aggressive is he has concluded he'll be sanctioned no matter what he does, so he shouldn't bother trying to get back in America's good graces.\nOur execution problems are many because American sanctions are almost always applied for reasons of\ndomestic\npolitics and chauvinism, not hard-nosed foreign policy. As\nHenry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman write\nin\nThe New York Times\n, American imperialists can't resist the temptation to use U.S. control over the dollar funding system to economically strangle perceived adversaries. Presidents use sanctions to signal they're tough by inflicting pain on \"enemies\" (most often innocent civilians) who are helpless to fight back from thousands of miles away. Presidents don't remove sanctions because that would be \"weak,\" or because the Kafkaesque imperial bureaucracy only goes in one direction, or because it would be humiliating to admit error.\nThe one place where sanctions did work in the past few decades, against apartheid South Africa, only underlines these points. That was the sole instance since 1945 when American sanctions have been applied as part of a consistent and well-understood foreign policy objective. The tactic was also unusually realistic, because South Africa was an American ally heavily dependent on good relations with the U.S. at the time. (Incidentally, this example is why partisans of\nIsrael\nreact so hysterically to the BDS movement: U.S. sanctions might also work there.)\nThe sanctions against the Taliban, by contrast, have all the usual pathologies. The Biden administration has no clearly articulated list of demands, much less ones that the Taliban might realistically except. We are not the Taliban's allies. To the contrary, the administration fears being attacked for doing anything that could, even indirectly, help the group that sheltered al Qaeda before 9\/11.\nThat fear isn't unfounded. The shrieking Fox News segments virtually write themselves, and given the\nderanged meltdown\nhalf the mainstream press had during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the same can be expected from much of CNN and MSNBC (with a few exceptions,\nlike Chris Hayes\n). A lot of \"objective\" reporters whose wounded imperial pride led them to pretend to care about the welfare of Afghan women and children are\nnow mute\nwhen those same people are facing starvation by the millions. If the Taliban got a single dollar of American aid, you can bet most of these self-proclaimed humanitarians would be right next to Tucker Carlson delivering purple-faced harangues about 9\/11 and the troops.\nIn that context, the Biden administration's\nTuesday announcement\nof another $308 million in humanitarian aid, to be carefully routed around Taliban-controlled institutions, is almost bold. It brings our total aid to Afghanistan since October to $782 million, and it's certainly a step in the right direction.\nBut it's still not even close to adequate. The same day, the\nUnited Nations\nannounced\na fundraising goal for Afghanistan aid of $5\nbillion\njust to get the country through the next few months. Over and above that total, the\nTimes\nreports U.N. officials think\n\"far-reaching efforts are needed to revive the banking system, restore businesses, and stabilize an economy that has collapsed under international sanctions and the freezing of Afghanistan's international reserves.\" In other words, so long as U.S. sanctions continue in their current form, the Afghan economy cannot possibly recover.\nEither the Biden administration and American foreign policy establishment can admit this — and acknowledge the Taliban won the war, and treat them like any other poor and unsavory government — or they can continue causing untold harm to Afghanistan's civilian population while almost certainly doing nothing to displace the Taliban from power. It's time to end this miserable and useless economic seige.","attrs_markdown":"![](https:\/\/sb.scorecardresearch.com\/p\/?c1=2&c2=10055482&cv=4.4.0&cj=1)\n\n[![The Week](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/flexiimages\/qsgislpohy1687441729.svg) The Week](https:\/\/theweek.com\/)\n\nUS Edition\n\n![flag of US](https:\/\/vanilla.futurecdn.net\/theweek\/media\/shared\/img\/flags\/nosize\/US.svg)\n\n[![flag of US](https:\/\/vanilla.futurecdn.net\/theweek\/media\/shared\/img\/flags\/nosize\/US.svg) US](https:\/\/theweek.com\/afghanistan-war\/1008876\/how-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine)\n\n[![flag of UK](https:\/\/vanilla.futurecdn.net\/theweek\/media\/shared\/img\/flags\/nosize\/GB.svg) UK](https:\/\/theweek.com\/uk)\n\n[![https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/flexiimages\/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/flexiimages\/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg) SUBSCRIBE & SAVE Less than \\$3 per 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[Politics](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics)\n\n[Opinion](https:\/\/theweek.com\/opinion)\n# How U.S. sanctions are driving Afghanistan to famine\nAmerican sanctions almost never achieve their stated goals, but they do harm innocent civilians\n\n![Ryan Cooper's avatar](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/nuBnwuoYrzDzWHmGo3pKBS-200-80.png)\n\nBy [Ryan Cooper](https:\/\/theweek.com\/author\/ryan-cooper)\n\npublished\n\nJanuary 12, 2022\n\n![Famine in Afghanistan.](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/LowmcEmUkKngdMnfMMGYmP.jpg)\n\n(Image credit: Illustrated \\| Getty Images, iStock)\n\nShare\n\n- Copy link\n- [Facebook](https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fafghanistan-war%2F1008876%2Fhow-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine)\n- [X](https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=How+U.S.+sanctions+are+driving+Afghanistan+to+famine&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fafghanistan-war%2F1008876%2Fhow-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine)\n- [Linkedin](https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fafghanistan-war%2F1008876%2Fhow-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine&title=How+U.S.+sanctions+are+driving+Afghanistan+to+famine&source=theweek.com)\n- [Whatsapp](whatsapp:\/\/send?text=How+U.S.+sanctions+are+driving+Afghanistan+to+famine+https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fafghanistan-war%2F1008876%2Fhow-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine?fwa)\n- [Pinterest](https:\/\/pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fafghanistan-war%2F1008876%2Fhow-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine&media=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net%2FLowmcEmUkKngdMnfMMGYmP.jpg)\n\nShare this article\n\nJoin the conversation\n\n[Follow us](https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=theweek.com)\n\nAdd us as a preferred source on Google\n\nNewsletter\n\nGet the The Week Newsletter\n\nA free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com\n\n***\nBy signing up, you agree to our [Terms of services](https:\\\/\\\/futureplc.com\\\/terms-conditions\\\/)  and acknowledge that you have read our [Privacy Notice](https:\\\/\\\/futureplc.com\\\/privacy-policy\\\/). You also agree to receive marketing emails from us that may include promotions from our trusted partners and sponsors, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.\n\nYou are now subscribed\n\nYour newsletter sign-up was successful\n\n***\nAn account already exists for this email address, please log in.\n\nSubscribe to our newsletter\n\nAfghanistan is [starving](https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/famine-stalks-afghanistan-west-urged-124808010.html). The country's economy has collapsed, a bitter winter has taken hold, and half the population doesn't have enough to eat. Already many have died — and it could get much, much worse. UNICEF estimates [1 million children could perish](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/13\/world\/asia\/afghanistan-united-nations-crisis.html) over the next few months without sufficient humanitarian aid, roughly four times the number of [deaths](https:\/\/watson.brown.edu\/costsofwar\/figures\/2021\/human-and-budgetary-costs-date-us-war-afghanistan-2001-2022) caused by the entire 20-year American occupation.\n\nThe approaching famine is not only a fluke of bad weather or poor agriculture. It is being caused by the United States' economic sanctions against the Taliban, which now rules Afghanistan. Despite the recent announcement of another round of [humanitarian aid](https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/01\/11\/politics\/us-humanitarian-assistance-afghanistan\/index.html) for Afghanistan, the bulk of U.S. sanctions will remain. They're the latest example of America's brainless addiction to punitive sanctions regimes that virtually never achieve the desired effect and too often inflict pointless suffering on innocents.\n\nAs [Murtaza Hussein explains](https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/01\/09\/afghanistan-sanctions-human-rights-hawks) at *The Intercept*, when American forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August and the puppet regime they had supported instantly collapsed, that left the country without three quarters of its government budget and 40 percent of its GDP. The U.S. government also seized Afghanistan's central bank reserves this past fall and now is using our control of global financial pipelines to prevent most economic interaction with Afghanistan's new government. Result: a shattering economic crisis only made worse by drought and the ongoing pandemic.\n\nArticle continues below\n\nYou may like\n\n- [![Donald Trump and Melania Trump at a dignified transfer for soldiers killed in Iranian strikes](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GzzWVas55UJ6eowDSzXz8P.jpg) Trump offers shifting goals for the war...](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/trump-offers-shifting-goals-iran-war)\n- [![Donald Trump](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/8Dih4UxuUgxZhhUHQLxEbN.jpg) Donald Trump’s mistakes in Iran](https:\/\/theweek.com\/world-news\/donald-trump-mistakes-iran)\n- [![Donald Trump gives address](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CEGocdjUTZ4LWdbog9MMXF.jpg) War in Iran: does Trump have an endgame?](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/war-in-iran-does-trump-have-an-endgame)\n\n## The Week\nEscape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.\n\n[SUBSCRIBE & SAVE](https:\/\/subscribe.theweek.com\/servlet\/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=TWE&cds_page_id=275740&cds_response_key=I4BRBKSW1&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=theweek.com&utm_campaign=wku-all-digital_referral-202401-sub-none-fbk24&utm_content=us-in-article)\n\n![https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/flexiimages\/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/flexiimages\/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg)\n\n## Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters\nFrom our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.\n\nFrom our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.\n\n[Sign up](https:\/\/theweek.com\/newsletters)\n\nLatest Videos From The Week\n\nAnd Washington's position is so irrational there's no sign the Taliban could do anything to relieve U.S. pressure. The group could crown President Biden king and that probably wouldn't do it. Even more aid won't negate U.S. policy here. It's just one more failure to add to our list of [sanctions disasters](https:\/\/ourworld.unu.edu\/en\/sanctions-and-why-they-dont-work-very-well).\n\nU.S. sanctions have done nothing, for example, to get [Iran](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/iran) to stop working on a nuclear weapon — on the contrary, what actually helped was the nuclear deal negotiated under former President [Barack Obama](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/barack-obama). When former President [Donald Trump](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/donald-trump) unilaterally went back on America's word and reimposed sanctions for no reason, Iran logically [returned to nuclear development](https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/jan\/22\/effect-us-sanctions-iran-global-effort-end). It's an open question whether Tehran can be convinced to trust American good faith again.\n\nSanctions equally haven't convinced Russian President [Vladimir Putin](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/vladimir-putin) to stop being an aggressive warmonger who interferes with elections in Western countries — on the contrary, he's currently [threatening to annex Ukraine](https:\/\/theweek.com\/world\/1008430\/how-the-west-let-ukraine-hang-out-to-dry).\n\nAnd sanctions [haven't destabilized the North Korean dictatorship](https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/worldviews\/wp\/2017\/09\/11\/why-havent-sanctions-on-north-korea-worked-two-very-different-theories), nor have they ousted [Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro](https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2021\/06\/03\/maduro-sanction-trump-biden-stronger), nor have they achieved any major U.S. policy goal in this century.\n\nSign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox\n\nA free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com\n\nBy signing up, you agree to our [Terms of services](https:\\\/\\\/futureplc.com\\\/terms-conditions\\\/)  and acknowledge that you have read our [Privacy Notice](https:\\\/\\\/futureplc.com\\\/privacy-policy\\\/). You also agree to receive marketing emails from us that may include promotions from our trusted partners and sponsors, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.\n\nNow, some of the ineffectiveness of American sanctions likely has to do more with execution than concept — especially because they're notoriously impossible to remove. Indeed, many [Russia](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/russia) experts [suspect](https:\/\/twitter.com\/DAlperovitch\/status\/1473365700634812417) one reason Putin is being so aggressive is he has concluded he'll be sanctioned no matter what he does, so he shouldn't bother trying to get back in America's good graces.\n\nOur execution problems are many because American sanctions are almost always applied for reasons of *domestic* politics and chauvinism, not hard-nosed foreign policy. As [Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman write](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/11\/01\/opinion\/swift-iran-sanctions.html) in *The New York Times*, American imperialists can't resist the temptation to use U.S. control over the dollar funding system to economically strangle perceived adversaries. Presidents use sanctions to signal they're tough by inflicting pain on \"enemies\" (most often innocent civilians) who are helpless to fight back from thousands of miles away. Presidents don't remove sanctions because that would be \"weak,\" or because the Kafkaesque imperial bureaucracy only goes in one direction, or because it would be humiliating to admit error.\n\nThe one place where sanctions did work in the past few decades, against apartheid South Africa, only underlines these points. That was the sole instance since 1945 when American sanctions have been applied as part of a consistent and well-understood foreign policy objective. The tactic was also unusually realistic, because South Africa was an American ally heavily dependent on good relations with the U.S. at the time. (Incidentally, this example is why partisans of [Israel](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/israel) react so hysterically to the BDS movement: U.S. sanctions might also work there.)\n\nWhat to read next\n\n- [![Iranian protesters look on as a fire burns in the street during a nighttime demonstration in Tehran](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zQUBHEqBL2kM39J3LoCgza.jpg) Iran unleashes carnage on its own people](https:\/\/theweek.com\/world-news\/iran-carnage-massacre-protests)\n- [![Two men watch plumes of smoke rise over a residential area of Tehran](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/ZtCLEXHdxJ7U9QdgDHGcBH.jpg) Operation Epic Fury: Trump’s fateful gamble](https:\/\/theweek.com\/world-news\/iran-operation-epic-fury-trump-gamble)\n- [![Maduro at a protest](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/VgE4o7LL8i6xsgyee57aS4.jpg) Donald Trump’s squeeze on Venezuela](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/the-squeeze-on-venezuela-donald-trump-pressure-on-nicolas-maduro)\n\nThe sanctions against the Taliban, by contrast, have all the usual pathologies. The Biden administration has no clearly articulated list of demands, much less ones that the Taliban might realistically except. We are not the Taliban's allies. To the contrary, the administration fears being attacked for doing anything that could, even indirectly, help the group that sheltered al Qaeda before 9\/11.\n\nThat fear isn't unfounded. The shrieking Fox News segments virtually write themselves, and given the [deranged meltdown](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/1003768\/biden-was-right-about-afghanistan) half the mainstream press had during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the same can be expected from much of CNN and MSNBC (with a few exceptions, [like Chris Hayes](https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/all-in\/watch\/hayes-millions-of-afghans-are-in-imminent-danger-the-u-s-must-help-130559045873)). A lot of \"objective\" reporters whose wounded imperial pride led them to pretend to care about the welfare of Afghan women and children are [now mute](https:\/\/theweek.com\/foreign-policy\/1006600\/american-elites-have-gotten-tellingly-quiet-about-afghanistan) when those same people are facing starvation by the millions. If the Taliban got a single dollar of American aid, you can bet most of these self-proclaimed humanitarians would be right next to Tucker Carlson delivering purple-faced harangues about 9\/11 and the troops.\n\nIn that context, the Biden administration's [Tuesday announcement](https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/01\/11\/politics\/us-humanitarian-assistance-afghanistan\/index.html) of another \\$308 million in humanitarian aid, to be carefully routed around Taliban-controlled institutions, is almost bold. It brings our total aid to Afghanistan since October to \\$782 million, and it's certainly a step in the right direction.\n\nBut it's still not even close to adequate. The same day, the [United Nations](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/united-nations) [announced](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/11\/world\/asia\/afghanistan-united-nations-appeal.html) a fundraising goal for Afghanistan aid of \\$5 *billion* just to get the country through the next few months. Over and above that total, the *Times* [reports U.N. officials think](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/11\/world\/asia\/afghanistan-united-nations-appeal.html) \"far-reaching efforts are needed to revive the banking system, restore businesses, and stabilize an economy that has collapsed under international sanctions and the freezing of Afghanistan's international reserves.\" In other words, so long as U.S. sanctions continue in their current form, the Afghan economy cannot possibly recover.\n\nEither the Biden administration and American foreign policy establishment can admit this — and acknowledge the Taliban won the war, and treat them like any other poor and unsavory government — or they can continue causing untold harm to Afghanistan's civilian population while almost certainly doing nothing to displace the Taliban from power. It's time to end this miserable and useless economic seige.\n\nExplore More\n\n[Foreign policy](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/foreign-policy)   [Afghanistan War](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/afghanistan-war)\n\n![Ryan Cooper](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/nuBnwuoYrzDzWHmGo3pKBS.png)\n\n[Ryan Cooper](https:\/\/theweek.com\/author\/ryan-cooper)\n\nSocial Links Navigation\n\nRyan Cooper is a national correspondent at *TheWeek.com*. His work has appeared in the *Washington Monthly*, *The New Republic*, and the *Washington Post*.\n\nRead more\n\n[![Donald Trump and Melania Trump at a dignified transfer for soldiers killed in Iranian strikes](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GzzWVas55UJ6eowDSzXz8P.jpg) Politics Trump offers shifting goals for the war...](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/trump-offers-shifting-goals-iran-war \"Trump offers shifting goals for the war...\")\n\n[![Donald Trump](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/8Dih4UxuUgxZhhUHQLxEbN.jpg) World News Donald Trump’s mistakes in Iran](https:\/\/theweek.com\/world-news\/donald-trump-mistakes-iran \"Donald Trump’s mistakes in Iran\")\n\n[![Donald Trump gives address](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CEGocdjUTZ4LWdbog9MMXF.jpg) Politics War in Iran: does Trump have an endgame?](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/war-in-iran-does-trump-have-an-endgame \"War in Iran: does Trump have an endgame?\")\n\n[![Iranian protesters look on as a fire burns in the street during a nighttime demonstration in Tehran](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zQUBHEqBL2kM39J3LoCgza.jpg) World News Iran unleashes carnage on its own people](https:\/\/theweek.com\/world-news\/iran-carnage-massacre-protests \"Iran unleashes carnage on its own people\")\n\nLatest in Politics\n\n[![Photograph of President Donald Trump hanging in National Portrait Gallery](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oBUierqjm7zNmEooXw6BqM.jpg) Politics Trump board clears path to mint Trump gold coin](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/trump-board-mint-gold-coin \"Trump board clears path to mint Trump gold coin\")\n\n[![US President Donald Trump speaks with the media as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks on aboard Air Force One during a flight from Dover, Delaware, to Miami, Florida, on March 7, 2026. (Photo by SAUL LOEB \/ AFP via Getty Images)](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/v9Gpus4ek6owPMUigoZAyM.jpg) Politics Pentagon’s \\$200B Iran war request rattles Congress](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/pentagon-200-billion-iran-war-congress \"Pentagon’s $200B Iran war request rattles Congress\")\n\n[![A woman photographs a street artwork by Banksy in London. ](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/XACva9rEDXGt4KyogzPjG6.jpg) Politics ‘The difference is in the magnitude’](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/instant-opinion-banksy-art-farms-world-medicine \"‘The difference is in the magnitude’\")\n\n[![Photo composite illustration of hands donating coins to charity boxes](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/dkhthaidDgBRMWqH56ZhHH.jpg) Politics Is Britain becoming less charitable?](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/is-britain-becoming-less-charitable \"Is Britain becoming less charitable?\")\n\nLatest in Opinion\n\n[![Elon Musk](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/4PLZe5AZE4YykzWkNxWmLW.jpg) Politics The end of empathy](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/the-end-of-empathy \"The end of empathy\")\n\n[![Donald Trump and Elon Musk](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/pmRavQZb9t8BUoR7fLysi9.jpg) Politics Refusing to submit](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/refusing-to-submit \"Refusing to submit\")\n\n[![Donald Trump](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/wxW9PynRSPTRytv9rbpztk.jpg) Politics The Project 2025 presidency](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/the-project-2025-presidency \"The Project 2025 presidency\")\n\n[![Donald Trump](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/mUP7oPKq2HdVwmonV9bo8i.jpg) Politics Born this way](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/born-this-way \"Born this way\")\n\n- [About Us](https:\/\/theweek.com\/about-us)\n- [Contact Future's experts](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/contact\/)\n- [Terms and Conditions](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/terms-conditions\/)\n- [Privacy Policy](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/privacy-policy\/)\n- [Cookie Policy](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/cookies-policy\/)\n- [Advertise With Us](https:\/\/go.future-advertising.com\/The-Week-Media-Kit.html)\n- [FAQ](https:\/\/theweek.com\/faq)\n- [Do not sell or share my personal information](https:\/\/theweek.com\/privacy-portal)\n\n[![Add as a preferred source on Google](https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/flexiimages\/mednnv697g1760357120.png) Add as a preferred source on Google](https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=theweek.com)\n\nThe Week is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. [Visit our corporate site](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/).\n\n© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.","attrs_readable_markdown":"Afghanistan is [starving](https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/famine-stalks-afghanistan-west-urged-124808010.html). The country's economy has collapsed, a bitter winter has taken hold, and half the population doesn't have enough to eat. Already many have died — and it could get much, much worse. UNICEF estimates [1 million children could perish](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/13\/world\/asia\/afghanistan-united-nations-crisis.html) over the next few months without sufficient humanitarian aid, roughly four times the number of [deaths](https:\/\/watson.brown.edu\/costsofwar\/figures\/2021\/human-and-budgetary-costs-date-us-war-afghanistan-2001-2022) caused by the entire 20-year American occupation.\n\nThe approaching famine is not only a fluke of bad weather or poor agriculture. It is being caused by the United States' economic sanctions against the Taliban, which now rules Afghanistan. Despite the recent announcement of another round of [humanitarian aid](https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/01\/11\/politics\/us-humanitarian-assistance-afghanistan\/index.html) for Afghanistan, the bulk of U.S. sanctions will remain. They're the latest example of America's brainless addiction to punitive sanctions regimes that virtually never achieve the desired effect and too often inflict pointless suffering on innocents.\n\nArticle continues below\n\n## The Week\nEscape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.\n\n[SUBSCRIBE & SAVE](https:\/\/subscribe.theweek.com\/servlet\/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=TWE&cds_page_id=275740&cds_response_key=I4BRBKSW1&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=theweek.com&utm_campaign=wku-all-digital_referral-202401-sub-none-fbk24&utm_content=us-in-article)\n\n## Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters\nFrom our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.\n\nFrom our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.\n\nLatest Videos From The Week\n\nAnd Washington's position is so irrational there's no sign the Taliban could do anything to relieve U.S. pressure. The group could crown President Biden king and that probably wouldn't do it. Even more aid won't negate U.S. policy here. It's just one more failure to add to our list of [sanctions disasters](https:\/\/ourworld.unu.edu\/en\/sanctions-and-why-they-dont-work-very-well).\n\nU.S. sanctions have done nothing, for example, to get [Iran](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/iran) to stop working on a nuclear weapon — on the contrary, what actually helped was the nuclear deal negotiated under former President [Barack Obama](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/barack-obama). When former President [Donald Trump](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/donald-trump) unilaterally went back on America's word and reimposed sanctions for no reason, Iran logically [returned to nuclear development](https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/jan\/22\/effect-us-sanctions-iran-global-effort-end). It's an open question whether Tehran can be convinced to trust American good faith again.\n\nSanctions equally haven't convinced Russian President [Vladimir Putin](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/vladimir-putin) to stop being an aggressive warmonger who interferes with elections in Western countries — on the contrary, he's currently [threatening to annex Ukraine](https:\/\/theweek.com\/world\/1008430\/how-the-west-let-ukraine-hang-out-to-dry).\n\nAnd sanctions [haven't destabilized the North Korean dictatorship](https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/worldviews\/wp\/2017\/09\/11\/why-havent-sanctions-on-north-korea-worked-two-very-different-theories), nor have they ousted [Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro](https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2021\/06\/03\/maduro-sanction-trump-biden-stronger), nor have they achieved any major U.S. policy goal in this century.\n\nA free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com\n\nNow, some of the ineffectiveness of American sanctions likely has to do more with execution than concept — especially because they're notoriously impossible to remove. Indeed, many [Russia](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/russia) experts [suspect](https:\/\/twitter.com\/DAlperovitch\/status\/1473365700634812417) one reason Putin is being so aggressive is he has concluded he'll be sanctioned no matter what he does, so he shouldn't bother trying to get back in America's good graces.\n\nOur execution problems are many because American sanctions are almost always applied for reasons of *domestic* politics and chauvinism, not hard-nosed foreign policy. As [Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman write](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/11\/01\/opinion\/swift-iran-sanctions.html) in *The New York Times*, American imperialists can't resist the temptation to use U.S. control over the dollar funding system to economically strangle perceived adversaries. Presidents use sanctions to signal they're tough by inflicting pain on \"enemies\" (most often innocent civilians) who are helpless to fight back from thousands of miles away. Presidents don't remove sanctions because that would be \"weak,\" or because the Kafkaesque imperial bureaucracy only goes in one direction, or because it would be humiliating to admit error.\n\nThe one place where sanctions did work in the past few decades, against apartheid South Africa, only underlines these points. That was the sole instance since 1945 when American sanctions have been applied as part of a consistent and well-understood foreign policy objective. The tactic was also unusually realistic, because South Africa was an American ally heavily dependent on good relations with the U.S. at the time. (Incidentally, this example is why partisans of [Israel](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/israel) react so hysterically to the BDS movement: U.S. sanctions might also work there.)\n\nThe sanctions against the Taliban, by contrast, have all the usual pathologies. The Biden administration has no clearly articulated list of demands, much less ones that the Taliban might realistically except. We are not the Taliban's allies. To the contrary, the administration fears being attacked for doing anything that could, even indirectly, help the group that sheltered al Qaeda before 9\/11.\n\nThat fear isn't unfounded. The shrieking Fox News segments virtually write themselves, and given the [deranged meltdown](https:\/\/theweek.com\/politics\/1003768\/biden-was-right-about-afghanistan) half the mainstream press had during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the same can be expected from much of CNN and MSNBC (with a few exceptions, [like Chris Hayes](https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/all-in\/watch\/hayes-millions-of-afghans-are-in-imminent-danger-the-u-s-must-help-130559045873)). A lot of \"objective\" reporters whose wounded imperial pride led them to pretend to care about the welfare of Afghan women and children are [now mute](https:\/\/theweek.com\/foreign-policy\/1006600\/american-elites-have-gotten-tellingly-quiet-about-afghanistan) when those same people are facing starvation by the millions. If the Taliban got a single dollar of American aid, you can bet most of these self-proclaimed humanitarians would be right next to Tucker Carlson delivering purple-faced harangues about 9\/11 and the troops.\n\nIn that context, the Biden administration's [Tuesday announcement](https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/01\/11\/politics\/us-humanitarian-assistance-afghanistan\/index.html) of another \\$308 million in humanitarian aid, to be carefully routed around Taliban-controlled institutions, is almost bold. It brings our total aid to Afghanistan since October to \\$782 million, and it's certainly a step in the right direction.\n\nBut it's still not even close to adequate. The same day, the [United Nations](https:\/\/theweek.com\/tag\/united-nations) [announced](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/11\/world\/asia\/afghanistan-united-nations-appeal.html) a fundraising goal for Afghanistan aid of \\$5 *billion* just to get the country through the next few months. Over and above that total, the *Times* [reports U.N. officials think](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/11\/world\/asia\/afghanistan-united-nations-appeal.html) \"far-reaching efforts are needed to revive the banking system, restore businesses, and stabilize an economy that has collapsed under international sanctions and the freezing of Afghanistan's international reserves.\" In other words, so long as U.S. sanctions continue in their current form, the Afghan economy cannot possibly recover.\n\nEither the Biden administration and American foreign policy establishment can admit this — and acknowledge the Taliban won the war, and treat them like any other poor and unsavory government — or they can continue causing untold harm to Afghanistan's civilian population while almost certainly doing nothing to displace the Taliban from power. It's time to end this miserable and useless economic seige.","meta_canonical":null}

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Boilerpipe Text	Afghanistan is starving . The country's economy has collapsed, a bitter winter has taken hold, and half the population doesn't have enough to eat. Already many have died — and it could get much, much worse. UNICEF estimates 1 million children could perish over the next few months without sufficient humanitarian aid, roughly four times the number of deaths caused by the entire 20-year American occupation. The approaching famine is not only a fluke of bad weather or poor agriculture. It is being caused by the United States' economic sanctions against the Taliban, which now rules Afghanistan. Despite the recent announcement of another round of humanitarian aid for Afghanistan, the bulk of U.S. sanctions will remain. They're the latest example of America's brainless addiction to punitive sanctions regimes that virtually never achieve the desired effect and too often inflict pointless suffering on innocents. Article continues below The Week Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Latest Videos From The Week And Washington's position is so irrational there's no sign the Taliban could do anything to relieve U.S. pressure. The group could crown President Biden king and that probably wouldn't do it. Even more aid won't negate U.S. policy here. It's just one more failure to add to our list of sanctions disasters . U.S. sanctions have done nothing, for example, to get Iran to stop working on a nuclear weapon — on the contrary, what actually helped was the nuclear deal negotiated under former President Barack Obama . When former President Donald Trump unilaterally went back on America's word and reimposed sanctions for no reason, Iran logically returned to nuclear development . It's an open question whether Tehran can be convinced to trust American good faith again. Sanctions equally haven't convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop being an aggressive warmonger who interferes with elections in Western countries — on the contrary, he's currently threatening to annex Ukraine . And sanctions haven't destabilized the North Korean dictatorship , nor have they ousted Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro , nor have they achieved any major U.S. policy goal in this century. A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com Now, some of the ineffectiveness of American sanctions likely has to do more with execution than concept — especially because they're notoriously impossible to remove. Indeed, many Russia experts suspect one reason Putin is being so aggressive is he has concluded he'll be sanctioned no matter what he does, so he shouldn't bother trying to get back in America's good graces. Our execution problems are many because American sanctions are almost always applied for reasons of domestic politics and chauvinism, not hard-nosed foreign policy. As Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman write in The New York Times , American imperialists can't resist the temptation to use U.S. control over the dollar funding system to economically strangle perceived adversaries. Presidents use sanctions to signal they're tough by inflicting pain on "enemies" (most often innocent civilians) who are helpless to fight back from thousands of miles away. Presidents don't remove sanctions because that would be "weak," or because the Kafkaesque imperial bureaucracy only goes in one direction, or because it would be humiliating to admit error. The one place where sanctions did work in the past few decades, against apartheid South Africa, only underlines these points. That was the sole instance since 1945 when American sanctions have been applied as part of a consistent and well-understood foreign policy objective. The tactic was also unusually realistic, because South Africa was an American ally heavily dependent on good relations with the U.S. at the time. (Incidentally, this example is why partisans of Israel react so hysterically to the BDS movement: U.S. sanctions might also work there.) The sanctions against the Taliban, by contrast, have all the usual pathologies. The Biden administration has no clearly articulated list of demands, much less ones that the Taliban might realistically except. We are not the Taliban's allies. To the contrary, the administration fears being attacked for doing anything that could, even indirectly, help the group that sheltered al Qaeda before 9/11. That fear isn't unfounded. The shrieking Fox News segments virtually write themselves, and given the deranged meltdown half the mainstream press had during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the same can be expected from much of CNN and MSNBC (with a few exceptions, like Chris Hayes ). A lot of "objective" reporters whose wounded imperial pride led them to pretend to care about the welfare of Afghan women and children are now mute when those same people are facing starvation by the millions. If the Taliban got a single dollar of American aid, you can bet most of these self-proclaimed humanitarians would be right next to Tucker Carlson delivering purple-faced harangues about 9/11 and the troops. In that context, the Biden administration's Tuesday announcement of another $308 million in humanitarian aid, to be carefully routed around Taliban-controlled institutions, is almost bold. It brings our total aid to Afghanistan since October to $782 million, and it's certainly a step in the right direction. But it's still not even close to adequate. The same day, the United Nations announced a fundraising goal for Afghanistan aid of $5 billion just to get the country through the next few months. Over and above that total, the Times reports U.N. officials think "far-reaching efforts are needed to revive the banking system, restore businesses, and stabilize an economy that has collapsed under international sanctions and the freezing of Afghanistan's international reserves." In other words, so long as U.S. sanctions continue in their current form, the Afghan economy cannot possibly recover. Either the Biden administration and American foreign policy establishment can admit this — and acknowledge the Taliban won the war, and treat them like any other poor and unsavory government — or they can continue causing untold harm to Afghanistan's civilian population while almost certainly doing nothing to displace the Taliban from power. It's time to end this miserable and useless economic seige.
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[Politics](https://theweek.com/politics) [Opinion](https://theweek.com/opinion) # How U.S. sanctions are driving Afghanistan to famine American sanctions almost never achieve their stated goals, but they do harm innocent civilians ![Ryan Cooper's avatar](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/nuBnwuoYrzDzWHmGo3pKBS-200-80.png) By [Ryan Cooper](https://theweek.com/author/ryan-cooper) published January 12, 2022 ![Famine in Afghanistan.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/LowmcEmUkKngdMnfMMGYmP.jpg) (Image credit: Illustrated \\| Getty Images, iStock) Share - Copy link - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fafghanistan-war%2F1008876%2Fhow-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine) - [X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=How+U.S.+sanctions+are+driving+Afghanistan+to+famine&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fafghanistan-war%2F1008876%2Fhow-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine) - [Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fafghanistan-war%2F1008876%2Fhow-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine&title=How+U.S.+sanctions+are+driving+Afghanistan+to+famine&source=theweek.com) - [Whatsapp](whatsapp://send?text=How+U.S.+sanctions+are+driving+Afghanistan+to+famine+https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fafghanistan-war%2F1008876%2Fhow-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine?fwa) - [Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fafghanistan-war%2F1008876%2Fhow-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine&media=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net%2FLowmcEmUkKngdMnfMMGYmP.jpg) Share this article Join the conversation [Follow us](https://google.com/preferences/source?q=theweek.com) Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Get the The Week Newsletter A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com * By signing up, you agree to our [Terms of services](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/terms-conditions\/) and acknowledge that you have read our [Privacy Notice](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/privacy-policy\/). You also agree to receive marketing emails from us that may include promotions from our trusted partners and sponsors, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful * An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Afghanistan is [starving](https://news.yahoo.com/famine-stalks-afghanistan-west-urged-124808010.html). The country's economy has collapsed, a bitter winter has taken hold, and half the population doesn't have enough to eat. Already many have died — and it could get much, much worse. UNICEF estimates [1 million children could perish](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/world/asia/afghanistan-united-nations-crisis.html) over the next few months without sufficient humanitarian aid, roughly four times the number of [deaths](https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/human-and-budgetary-costs-date-us-war-afghanistan-2001-2022) caused by the entire 20-year American occupation. The approaching famine is not only a fluke of bad weather or poor agriculture. It is being caused by the United States' economic sanctions against the Taliban, which now rules Afghanistan. Despite the recent announcement of another round of [humanitarian aid](https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/11/politics/us-humanitarian-assistance-afghanistan/index.html) for Afghanistan, the bulk of U.S. sanctions will remain. They're the latest example of America's brainless addiction to punitive sanctions regimes that virtually never achieve the desired effect and too often inflict pointless suffering on innocents. As [Murtaza Hussein explains](https://theintercept.com/2022/01/09/afghanistan-sanctions-human-rights-hawks) at The Intercept, when American forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August and the puppet regime they had supported instantly collapsed, that left the country without three quarters of its government budget and 40 percent of its GDP. The U.S. government also seized Afghanistan's central bank reserves this past fall and now is using our control of global financial pipelines to prevent most economic interaction with Afghanistan's new government. Result: a shattering economic crisis only made worse by drought and the ongoing pandemic. Article continues below You may like - [![Donald Trump and Melania Trump at a dignified transfer for soldiers killed in Iranian strikes](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/GzzWVas55UJ6eowDSzXz8P.jpg) Trump offers shifting goals for the war...](https://theweek.com/politics/trump-offers-shifting-goals-iran-war) - [![Donald Trump](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/8Dih4UxuUgxZhhUHQLxEbN.jpg) Donald Trump’s mistakes in Iran](https://theweek.com/world-news/donald-trump-mistakes-iran) - [![Donald Trump gives address](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/CEGocdjUTZ4LWdbog9MMXF.jpg) War in Iran: does Trump have an endgame?](https://theweek.com/politics/war-in-iran-does-trump-have-an-endgame) ## The Week Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. [SUBSCRIBE & SAVE](https://subscribe.theweek.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=TWE&cds_page_id=275740&cds_response_key=I4BRBKSW1&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=theweek.com&utm_campaign=wku-all-digital_referral-202401-sub-none-fbk24&utm_content=us-in-article) ![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg) ## Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. [Sign up](https://theweek.com/newsletters) Latest Videos From The Week And Washington's position is so irrational there's no sign the Taliban could do anything to relieve U.S. pressure. The group could crown President Biden king and that probably wouldn't do it. Even more aid won't negate U.S. policy here. It's just one more failure to add to our list of [sanctions disasters](https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/sanctions-and-why-they-dont-work-very-well). U.S. sanctions have done nothing, for example, to get [Iran](https://theweek.com/tag/iran) to stop working on a nuclear weapon — on the contrary, what actually helped was the nuclear deal negotiated under former President [Barack Obama](https://theweek.com/tag/barack-obama). When former President [Donald Trump](https://theweek.com/tag/donald-trump) unilaterally went back on America's word and reimposed sanctions for no reason, Iran logically [returned to nuclear development](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/22/effect-us-sanctions-iran-global-effort-end). It's an open question whether Tehran can be convinced to trust American good faith again. Sanctions equally haven't convinced Russian President [Vladimir Putin](https://theweek.com/tag/vladimir-putin) to stop being an aggressive warmonger who interferes with elections in Western countries — on the contrary, he's currently [threatening to annex Ukraine](https://theweek.com/world/1008430/how-the-west-let-ukraine-hang-out-to-dry). And sanctions [haven't destabilized the North Korean dictatorship](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/11/why-havent-sanctions-on-north-korea-worked-two-very-different-theories), nor have they ousted [Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro](https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/03/maduro-sanction-trump-biden-stronger), nor have they achieved any major U.S. policy goal in this century. Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com By signing up, you agree to our [Terms of services](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/terms-conditions\/) and acknowledge that you have read our [Privacy Notice](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/privacy-policy\/). You also agree to receive marketing emails from us that may include promotions from our trusted partners and sponsors, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. Now, some of the ineffectiveness of American sanctions likely has to do more with execution than concept — especially because they're notoriously impossible to remove. Indeed, many [Russia](https://theweek.com/tag/russia) experts [suspect](https://twitter.com/DAlperovitch/status/1473365700634812417) one reason Putin is being so aggressive is he has concluded he'll be sanctioned no matter what he does, so he shouldn't bother trying to get back in America's good graces. Our execution problems are many because American sanctions are almost always applied for reasons of domestic politics and chauvinism, not hard-nosed foreign policy. As [Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman write](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/opinion/swift-iran-sanctions.html) in The New York Times, American imperialists can't resist the temptation to use U.S. control over the dollar funding system to economically strangle perceived adversaries. Presidents use sanctions to signal they're tough by inflicting pain on "enemies" (most often innocent civilians) who are helpless to fight back from thousands of miles away. Presidents don't remove sanctions because that would be "weak," or because the Kafkaesque imperial bureaucracy only goes in one direction, or because it would be humiliating to admit error. The one place where sanctions did work in the past few decades, against apartheid South Africa, only underlines these points. That was the sole instance since 1945 when American sanctions have been applied as part of a consistent and well-understood foreign policy objective. The tactic was also unusually realistic, because South Africa was an American ally heavily dependent on good relations with the U.S. at the time. (Incidentally, this example is why partisans of [Israel](https://theweek.com/tag/israel) react so hysterically to the BDS movement: U.S. sanctions might also work there.) What to read next - [![Iranian protesters look on as a fire burns in the street during a nighttime demonstration in Tehran](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/zQUBHEqBL2kM39J3LoCgza.jpg) Iran unleashes carnage on its own people](https://theweek.com/world-news/iran-carnage-massacre-protests) - [![Two men watch plumes of smoke rise over a residential area of Tehran](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ZtCLEXHdxJ7U9QdgDHGcBH.jpg) Operation Epic Fury: Trump’s fateful gamble](https://theweek.com/world-news/iran-operation-epic-fury-trump-gamble) - [![Maduro at a protest](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VgE4o7LL8i6xsgyee57aS4.jpg) Donald Trump’s squeeze on Venezuela](https://theweek.com/politics/the-squeeze-on-venezuela-donald-trump-pressure-on-nicolas-maduro) The sanctions against the Taliban, by contrast, have all the usual pathologies. The Biden administration has no clearly articulated list of demands, much less ones that the Taliban might realistically except. We are not the Taliban's allies. To the contrary, the administration fears being attacked for doing anything that could, even indirectly, help the group that sheltered al Qaeda before 9/11. That fear isn't unfounded. The shrieking Fox News segments virtually write themselves, and given the [deranged meltdown](https://theweek.com/politics/1003768/biden-was-right-about-afghanistan) half the mainstream press had during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the same can be expected from much of CNN and MSNBC (with a few exceptions, [like Chris Hayes](https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/hayes-millions-of-afghans-are-in-imminent-danger-the-u-s-must-help-130559045873)). A lot of "objective" reporters whose wounded imperial pride led them to pretend to care about the welfare of Afghan women and children are [now mute](https://theweek.com/foreign-policy/1006600/american-elites-have-gotten-tellingly-quiet-about-afghanistan) when those same people are facing starvation by the millions. If the Taliban got a single dollar of American aid, you can bet most of these self-proclaimed humanitarians would be right next to Tucker Carlson delivering purple-faced harangues about 9/11 and the troops. In that context, the Biden administration's [Tuesday announcement](https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/11/politics/us-humanitarian-assistance-afghanistan/index.html) of another \$308 million in humanitarian aid, to be carefully routed around Taliban-controlled institutions, is almost bold. It brings our total aid to Afghanistan since October to \$782 million, and it's certainly a step in the right direction. But it's still not even close to adequate. The same day, the [United Nations](https://theweek.com/tag/united-nations) [announced](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/world/asia/afghanistan-united-nations-appeal.html) a fundraising goal for Afghanistan aid of \$5 billion just to get the country through the next few months. Over and above that total, the Times [reports U.N. officials think](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/world/asia/afghanistan-united-nations-appeal.html) "far-reaching efforts are needed to revive the banking system, restore businesses, and stabilize an economy that has collapsed under international sanctions and the freezing of Afghanistan's international reserves." In other words, so long as U.S. sanctions continue in their current form, the Afghan economy cannot possibly recover. Either the Biden administration and American foreign policy establishment can admit this — and acknowledge the Taliban won the war, and treat them like any other poor and unsavory government — or they can continue causing untold harm to Afghanistan's civilian population while almost certainly doing nothing to displace the Taliban from power. It's time to end this miserable and useless economic seige. Explore More [Foreign policy](https://theweek.com/tag/foreign-policy) [Afghanistan War](https://theweek.com/tag/afghanistan-war) ![Ryan Cooper](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/nuBnwuoYrzDzWHmGo3pKBS.png) [Ryan Cooper](https://theweek.com/author/ryan-cooper) Social Links Navigation Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post. Read more [![Donald Trump and Melania Trump at a dignified transfer for soldiers killed in Iranian strikes](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/GzzWVas55UJ6eowDSzXz8P.jpg) Politics Trump offers shifting goals for the war...](https://theweek.com/politics/trump-offers-shifting-goals-iran-war "Trump offers shifting goals for the war...") 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Readable Markdown	Afghanistan is [starving](https://news.yahoo.com/famine-stalks-afghanistan-west-urged-124808010.html). The country's economy has collapsed, a bitter winter has taken hold, and half the population doesn't have enough to eat. Already many have died — and it could get much, much worse. UNICEF estimates [1 million children could perish](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/world/asia/afghanistan-united-nations-crisis.html) over the next few months without sufficient humanitarian aid, roughly four times the number of [deaths](https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/human-and-budgetary-costs-date-us-war-afghanistan-2001-2022) caused by the entire 20-year American occupation. The approaching famine is not only a fluke of bad weather or poor agriculture. It is being caused by the United States' economic sanctions against the Taliban, which now rules Afghanistan. Despite the recent announcement of another round of [humanitarian aid](https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/11/politics/us-humanitarian-assistance-afghanistan/index.html) for Afghanistan, the bulk of U.S. sanctions will remain. They're the latest example of America's brainless addiction to punitive sanctions regimes that virtually never achieve the desired effect and too often inflict pointless suffering on innocents. Article continues below ## The Week Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. [SUBSCRIBE & SAVE](https://subscribe.theweek.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=TWE&cds_page_id=275740&cds_response_key=I4BRBKSW1&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=theweek.com&utm_campaign=wku-all-digital_referral-202401-sub-none-fbk24&utm_content=us-in-article) ## Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Latest Videos From The Week And Washington's position is so irrational there's no sign the Taliban could do anything to relieve U.S. pressure. The group could crown President Biden king and that probably wouldn't do it. Even more aid won't negate U.S. policy here. It's just one more failure to add to our list of [sanctions disasters](https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/sanctions-and-why-they-dont-work-very-well). U.S. sanctions have done nothing, for example, to get [Iran](https://theweek.com/tag/iran) to stop working on a nuclear weapon — on the contrary, what actually helped was the nuclear deal negotiated under former President [Barack Obama](https://theweek.com/tag/barack-obama). When former President [Donald Trump](https://theweek.com/tag/donald-trump) unilaterally went back on America's word and reimposed sanctions for no reason, Iran logically [returned to nuclear development](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/22/effect-us-sanctions-iran-global-effort-end). It's an open question whether Tehran can be convinced to trust American good faith again. Sanctions equally haven't convinced Russian President [Vladimir Putin](https://theweek.com/tag/vladimir-putin) to stop being an aggressive warmonger who interferes with elections in Western countries — on the contrary, he's currently [threatening to annex Ukraine](https://theweek.com/world/1008430/how-the-west-let-ukraine-hang-out-to-dry). And sanctions [haven't destabilized the North Korean dictatorship](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/11/why-havent-sanctions-on-north-korea-worked-two-very-different-theories), nor have they ousted [Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro](https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/03/maduro-sanction-trump-biden-stronger), nor have they achieved any major U.S. policy goal in this century. A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com Now, some of the ineffectiveness of American sanctions likely has to do more with execution than concept — especially because they're notoriously impossible to remove. Indeed, many [Russia](https://theweek.com/tag/russia) experts [suspect](https://twitter.com/DAlperovitch/status/1473365700634812417) one reason Putin is being so aggressive is he has concluded he'll be sanctioned no matter what he does, so he shouldn't bother trying to get back in America's good graces. Our execution problems are many because American sanctions are almost always applied for reasons of domestic politics and chauvinism, not hard-nosed foreign policy. As [Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman write](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/opinion/swift-iran-sanctions.html) in The New York Times, American imperialists can't resist the temptation to use U.S. control over the dollar funding system to economically strangle perceived adversaries. Presidents use sanctions to signal they're tough by inflicting pain on "enemies" (most often innocent civilians) who are helpless to fight back from thousands of miles away. Presidents don't remove sanctions because that would be "weak," or because the Kafkaesque imperial bureaucracy only goes in one direction, or because it would be humiliating to admit error. The one place where sanctions did work in the past few decades, against apartheid South Africa, only underlines these points. That was the sole instance since 1945 when American sanctions have been applied as part of a consistent and well-understood foreign policy objective. The tactic was also unusually realistic, because South Africa was an American ally heavily dependent on good relations with the U.S. at the time. (Incidentally, this example is why partisans of [Israel](https://theweek.com/tag/israel) react so hysterically to the BDS movement: U.S. sanctions might also work there.) The sanctions against the Taliban, by contrast, have all the usual pathologies. The Biden administration has no clearly articulated list of demands, much less ones that the Taliban might realistically except. We are not the Taliban's allies. To the contrary, the administration fears being attacked for doing anything that could, even indirectly, help the group that sheltered al Qaeda before 9/11. That fear isn't unfounded. The shrieking Fox News segments virtually write themselves, and given the [deranged meltdown](https://theweek.com/politics/1003768/biden-was-right-about-afghanistan) half the mainstream press had during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the same can be expected from much of CNN and MSNBC (with a few exceptions, [like Chris Hayes](https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/hayes-millions-of-afghans-are-in-imminent-danger-the-u-s-must-help-130559045873)). A lot of "objective" reporters whose wounded imperial pride led them to pretend to care about the welfare of Afghan women and children are [now mute](https://theweek.com/foreign-policy/1006600/american-elites-have-gotten-tellingly-quiet-about-afghanistan) when those same people are facing starvation by the millions. If the Taliban got a single dollar of American aid, you can bet most of these self-proclaimed humanitarians would be right next to Tucker Carlson delivering purple-faced harangues about 9/11 and the troops. In that context, the Biden administration's [Tuesday announcement](https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/11/politics/us-humanitarian-assistance-afghanistan/index.html) of another \$308 million in humanitarian aid, to be carefully routed around Taliban-controlled institutions, is almost bold. It brings our total aid to Afghanistan since October to \$782 million, and it's certainly a step in the right direction. But it's still not even close to adequate. The same day, the [United Nations](https://theweek.com/tag/united-nations) [announced](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/world/asia/afghanistan-united-nations-appeal.html) a fundraising goal for Afghanistan aid of \$5 billion just to get the country through the next few months. Over and above that total, the Times [reports U.N. officials think](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/world/asia/afghanistan-united-nations-appeal.html) "far-reaching efforts are needed to revive the banking system, restore businesses, and stabilize an economy that has collapsed under international sanctions and the freezing of Afghanistan's international reserves." In other words, so long as U.S. sanctions continue in their current form, the Afghan economy cannot possibly recover. Either the Biden administration and American foreign policy establishment can admit this — and acknowledge the Taliban won the war, and treat them like any other poor and unsavory government — or they can continue causing untold harm to Afghanistan's civilian population while almost certainly doing nothing to displace the Taliban from power. It's time to end this miserable and useless economic seige.
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