A legal regime that responded to breach of contract by ordering specific performance, restitutionary disgorgement, or even punitive damages would truly sanction rather than merely pricing breach.
It's high time, in Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's words, for truly crippling sanctions.
Some analysts suggested that the desire of Europeans to sidestep truly forceful sanctions to protect their economies should not be underestimated.
For now, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while worried that Mr. Obama may go soft on Iran, seems to believe that the Iranian government is so fragile that truly harsh sanctions might crack it.
And the truly crippling sanctions that might have more of an effect would never be accepted by Western politicians, who are fearful of higher oil costs and of being seen as too harsh on the Iranian people.
But that clout is also the reason why truly biting sanctions are unlikely to be introduced: London, and other major cities, needs the Russians – and their cash – too much.
But later that year, when Israel found a nuclear reactor under construction in the Syrian desert and destroyed it in an airstrike, the United States took no further action, in part because the Bush administration could not think of any truly effective sanctions.
In other words, a U.S. or E.U. crackdown on illicit cash and investments coming from Russia would be a truly significant sanction, not just for those on the receiving end but for those enacting it — which is exactly the reason it's not happening.
If efforts to inspect and verify are delayed and then resolutely-restricted, how readily might a full-fledged "snapback" of truly enforceable sanctions be devised and imposed?
That said, the U.S. still has a responsibility to ratchet up the pressure by resorting to truly crippling sanctions and encouraging others (in particular the European Union and the Arab states) to act accordingly.
Given that the ayatollahs are now willing to overlook Shariah in an effort to keep their economy afloat, they may be willing to deal with the West if it looks as if their economy - and their rule -- are about to be weakened by truly tough sanctions.
