Iran Has Us Over a Barrel—Of Oil

NYT:WASHINGTON - As Western governments debate how to punish Iran for its nuclear activities, Bush administration and European officials said Thursday that they wanted to avoid causing hardship or more anti-Western resentment in the Iranian public.

The officials said that sanctions were not in the offing anytime soon, and they had ruled out any early steps toward an oil embargo or other sorts of sweeping economic punishments that would not only be opposed in Europe but would also cause internal suffering in Iran. | story

It’s sort of like admonishing a drug dealer for selling heroin to kids, and then scoring a dime bag of blow for yourself.