It's so easy these days  to second guess NIAC or RP 2 ( who dropped his "2" long ago )  that it's become boring for me as a journalist ... 

Darius jaan what is certain is that sanctions have been far more effective on people than they are on the regimes of Cuba or Iran.  Sort of like democracy by force!  In Iran Khamanei simply said/says "be jahanam"

The reality and the whole idea behind sanctions has been taken from socialist and leftist ideologies!  That people (not the regime) will become so frostrated with the economic disparities that as MLK used to say: I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. 

Now replace the "I" in I have a dream to "Sanctions".  Unfortunately or fortunately what's good for the goose is not good for the gandor!  You cannot create an aritificial uprising and try to copy an organic uprising before it!

50 years of sanctions and you can't get any more poor economically in Cuba.  Yet nothing, no rise up! So at least let's try something else.  In the case of Iran better economic conditions have resulted in more public demands for better national conditions, better justice, etc.

I have a dream :-) 

In social and political arenas, the worst we can do is to employ mechanical comparisons between culturally incongruent societies and then draw ad-hock conclusions that suit one's own emotional interests.  And never before, have these parallels been drawn as often as in the case of IRI, when economic sanctions or nuclear containment were on the agenda.

We have heard enough about how rationally the Soviets behaved with their nuclear arsenal during the cold war, and hence, let's IRI have theirs as well. Or, economic sanctions did nothing to Castro's Cuba, nor will they harm the regime of the Ayatollahs. After 50 years of sanctions, the Cuban regime demonstrated its monolithic essence and kept a stiff upper lip. And after 3 years of sanctions, Iran's currency plunged 400%, and the regime resorted to another violent round of repressive measures to contain inside opponents. Except that this time, these opponents were no other than their own former statesmen.

Whether or not one likes sanctions is out of the scope of this dialogue. At least Raul can pick the phone and talk to president of US. Obama has been trying to reach Khamenie for years to no avail. Resorting to the effects of sanctions on the Iranian people and ignoring the dramatic change of political landscape within the regime is only the buffoonery of NIAC and its ilk.