Monday NBC GOP Four Man Debate

[Block]

No, economic sanctions are not the same thing as a blockade, no matter how much you want it to be.
edit: They are legally distinct terms, and are defined as such by pretty much every major organization you can name.

[Simon_Jester]

If refusal to trade constitutes a declaration of war, does that entitle used car salesmen to shoot me in self defense?

[The Yosemite Bear]

just please tell me that Bean's puppy is the official moderator, and anyone she pees on or bites is out of the race....

[Zinegata]

A blockade is a unilateral action. A sanction has some kind of international agreement (typically UN) backing it up.

Militarily, they are the same (stopping merchant ships and land traffic from entering or leaving a country), but politically they are not. The former is an act of war; the latter is not. In fact, the latter was created as an alternative to war.

[Sea Skimmer]

Sanctions are a loose term. A nation can call its own self restrictions sanctions, but these are not backed up by armed force except so far as stopping your own ships and vehicles from making deliveries. The EU just put sanctions on Iranian oil imports, this doesn't mean the EU is going out to stop anyone else from importing it physically. Politically sure, but that's international politics at work. Nobody is committing an act of war until they stop an IRANIAN ship or a foreign powers ship traveling to Iran.

[MKSheppard]

Newt and Santorum want war with Iran ASAP if they close the strait and commit an act of war, Paul the lone voice of sanity points out under that definition the blockade which is also an act of war means we are already at war and we started it.

So Ron Paul thinks that the attack on Pearl Harbor was justified, hun? Nice to know.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I think there's confusion between a blockade and an EMBARGO. Currently there's an embargo with Iran, led by the US.